@prescient-devices-oss/node-red-contrib-fileinput

A node that, once its button is pressed, prompts the user to select a file from the browser's file system and then emits its contents as a message or a series of messages if the streaming option is selected.

A message on the node's input port asks for a file as well. Browsers only open a file picker while a user gesture is active, so the message cannot open one on its own: a notification appears in the open editor with a Choose file button, and clicking it opens the picker. The properties of the input message are merged into every message the node then emits. A request that goes unanswered for ten minutes expires, and a file chosen after that point no longer carries those properties.

If the connection carrying an upload is severed, the upload fails and has to be started again from the beginning rather than resuming where it stopped. An upload that fails before any of the file reaches the node releases it immediately, so the next attempt is accepted rather than refused as an overlapping upload.

Installation

Node-RED editor's palette manager may be used to install the node. Alternatively, the command line may also be used to install the node with the following commands (assuming the user's Node-RED directory is ${HOME}/.node-red):

$ cd "${HOME}"/.node-red
$ npm install --production @prescient-devices-oss/node-red-contrib-fileinput
[...]

Node

• fileinput

Running Tests

The development dependencies need to be installed before running the test-bench. This can be accomplished with the following commands (assuming ${HOME}/node-red-contrib-fileinput is the node's development directory where the node's package.json is):

$ cd "${HOME}"/node-red-contrib-fileinput
$ npm install
[...]

Then to run the tests:

$ cd "${HOME}"/node-red-contrib-fileinput
$ npm test
[...]

The test-bench starts a Node-RED runtime of its own and drives its editor in a browser. That runtime listens on port 18880 rather than Node-RED's usual 1880, so a development instance already parked on 1880 does not have to be taken down for the length of a run. Should 18880 be busy as well, the whole suite - both the runtime it starts and the browser it drives against that runtime - moves with the __FILEINPUT_TEST_UI_PORT__ environment variable:

$ cd "${HOME}"/node-red-contrib-fileinput
$ __FILEINPUT_TEST_UI_PORT__=18881 npm test
[...]

Contributing / Fixes

An issue may be raised for typos and single-line fixes. A pull request may be opened in the node's GitHub repository for more complex fixes and/or contributions.

Copyright and license

Copyright Prescient Devices, Inc. under the MIT license, which is in the LICENSE file.