Toolset

Toolset is a set of utilities that makes it a lot faster and easier to do the things you need all the time in your projects.

It is split into modules.

Install

npm install toolset

var toolset = require('toolset');

files

Read non binary files and urls

// Read a local file
toolset.file.read('file.txt', function(content) {
    // content === false if the file doesn't exist.
});

// Read a remote file (GET)
toolset.file.read('http://www.server.com/file', function(content) {
    // content === false if the server's response code is not 200.
});

Read a JSON file (and get the output as object already)

// Read a local JSON file
toolset.file.toObject('file.json', function(obj) {
    // content === false if the file doesn't exist.
});

// Read a remote JSON file (GET)
toolset.file.read('http://www.server.com/file.json', function(obj) {
    // content === false if the server's response code is not 200.
});

Read a binary file

// Read a local file
toolset.file.readBinary('logo.jpg', function(content) {
    // content === false if the file doesn't exist.
});

// Read a remote file (GET)
toolset.file.readBinary('http://www.server.com/logo.jpg', function(content) {
    // content === false if the server's response code is not 200.
});

Append to a file

toolset.file.append('file.txt', 'some content', function() {
    // done
});

Write/create a file

toolset.file.write('file.txt', 'some content', function() {
    // done
});

Write/create a JSON object to a file

toolset.file.writeJson('file.json', {hello:'world'}, function() {
    // done
});

Delete a file

toolset.file.removeFile('file.json', function() {
    // done
});

Copy a file

toolset.file.copy('file.txt', 'copy.txt', function() {
    // done
});

Test if a file exists

toolset.file.exists('file.txt', function(exists) {
    if (exists) {
        // file exists
    } else {
        // fiel doesn't exist
    }
});

List the files in a directory (including subdirectories)

// List all the JS files
toolset.file.listFiles('/home', 'js', function(files) {
    // ['/home/file.js', '/home/subdirecotry/somefile.js', ...]
});

// List any file
toolset.file.listFiles('/home', false, function(files) {
    // ...
});

List the files with a specific filename (including subdirectories)

// List any file
toolset.file.listByFilename('./bower_components', 'bower.json', function(files) {
    // ...
});

List the files in a directory (not including subdirectories)

toolset.file.getDirContent('/home', function(files) {
    // ...
});

Test if it's a dir or a file

var isDir = toolset.file.isDir('something');

Create a path (create all the directories required)

toolset.file.createPath('/hello/world/test/', function() {
    // ...
});

Delete a directory and its content

toolset.file.removeDir('/some_directory', function() {
    // ...
});

Stack

If you want to get out of the callback nightmare, you'll need to organize your code better. Some people use promises, but I personnaly prefer the stack approach to the issue.

For example, let's say you want to read the files 0.js, 1.js, 2.js ... 9.js and concatenate them in a single file:

    // Create a new stack instance
    var stack = new toolset.stack();
    
    // Create a variable to store the files
    var concatenated = "";
    
    for (i=0;i<10;i++) {
        stack.add(function(params, callback) {
            toolset.file.read(params.i+'.js', function(content) {
                concatenated += content;
                
                // We're done processing, we call the callback function to let the stack know we are done with that particular task.
                callback();
            });
        }, {i: i});
    }
    
    // Now that we have the tasks setup, we execute them
    // The callback function in process() will get execute only once all of the tasks are finished.
    stack.process(function() {
        // Write the file
        toolset.file.write('concatenated.js', concatenated);
    }, false);  // false = sync. true = async.

Archiving

One need that keep coming back in many project is the ability to archive and then extract files.

[coming soon]