CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptnode.js
takanopontaro
takanopontaro

Reputation: 267

Is it possible to let a Node.js application receive user input data in an external text editor?

I'm writing an application for Node.js. I want to execute an external text editor like VSCode and wait until a user inputs any texts and saves them. After that, the app receives the saved data from the text editor as stdin. I mean that it is action same as git commit[ENTER].

I tried to use open [path to app] command but it didn't work well. The process exits with no wait.

Is there any way to do this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 251

Answers (1)

functorial
functorial

Reputation: 338

You shouldn't need an external library for this. You can launch the program using child_process.spawn, and then wait for changes to the file using fs.watch. When a change comes in (or when the editor is closed), you can read the file again.

Code (untested):

import {spawn} from "child_process";
import fs from "fs";

function getEditorInput(editorCmd, file, cb) {
  const process = spawn(editorCmd, [file]);

  process.on('close', (code) => {
    // re-read file, and cb
  });
  // OR
  const watcher = fs.watch(file, (ev, f) => {
    // re-read file, call cb
  })
}

Note you should close the watcher at some point (say, after editor closes) with watcher.close().

Upvotes: 1

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