3 [![ExternalEditor on Travis CI](https://img.shields.io/travis/mrkmg/node-external-editor.svg?style=flat-square)](https://travis-ci.org/mrkmg/node-external-editor/branches)
4 [![ExternalEditor on NPM](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/external-editor.svg?style=flat-square)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/external-editor)
5 [![ExternalEditor uses the MIT](https://img.shields.io/npm/l/external-editor.svg?style=flat-square)](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
8 A node module to edit a string with a users preferred text editor using $VISUAL or $ENVIRONMENT.
12 As of version 3.0.0, the minimum version of node supported is 4.
16 `npm install external-editor --save`
20 A simple example using the `.edit` convenience method
22 import {edit} from "external-editor";
23 const data = edit('\n\n# Please write your text above');
26 A full featured example
28 import {ExternalEditor, CreateFileError, ReadFileError, RemoveFileError} from "external-editor"
31 const editor = new ExternalEditor();
32 const text = editor.run() // the text is also available in editor.text
34 if (editor.last_exit_status !== 0) {
35 console.log("The editor exited with a non-zero code");
38 if (err instanceOf CreateFileError) {
39 console.log('Failed to create the temporary file');
40 } else if (err instanceOf ReadFileError) {
41 console.log('Failed to read the temporary file');
42 } else if (err instanceOf LaunchEditorError) {
43 console.log('Failed to launch your editor');
49 // Do things with the text
51 // Eventually call the cleanup to remove the temporary file
55 if (err instanceOf RemoveFileError) {
56 console.log('Failed to remove the temporary file');
64 **Convenience Methods**
66 - `edit(text, config)`
67 - `text` (string) *Optional* Defaults to empty string
68 - `config` (Config) *Optional* Options for temporary file creation
69 - **Returns** (string) The contents of the file
70 - Could throw `CreateFileError`, `ReadFileError`, or `LaunchEditorError`, or `RemoveFileError`
71 - `editAsync(text, callback, config)`
72 - `text` (string) *Optional* Defaults to empty string
73 - `callback` (function (error, text))
74 - `error` could be of type `CreateFileError`, `ReadFileError`, or `LaunchEditorError`, or `RemoveFileError`
75 - `text`(string) The contents of the file
76 - `config` (Config) *Optional* Options for temporary file creation
81 - `CreateFileError` Error thrown if the temporary file could not be created.
82 - `ReadFileError` Error thrown if the temporary file could not be read.
83 - `RemoveFileError` Error thrown if the temporary file could not be removed during cleanup.
84 - `LaunchEditorError` Error thrown if the editor could not be launched.
86 **External Editor Public Methods**
88 - `new ExternalEditor(text, config)`
89 - `text` (string) *Optional* Defaults to empty string
90 - `config` (Config) *Optional* Options for temporary file creation
91 - Could throw `CreateFileError`
92 - `run()` Launches the editor.
93 - **Returns** (string) The contents of the file
94 - Could throw `LaunchEditorError` or `ReadFileError`
95 - `runAsync(callback)` Launches the editor in an async way
96 - `callback` (function (error, text))
97 - `error` could be of type `ReadFileError` or `LaunchEditorError`
98 - `text`(string) The contents of the file
99 - `cleanup()` Removes the temporary file.
100 - Could throw `RemoveFileError`
102 **External Editor Public Properties**
104 - `text` (string) *readonly* The text in the temporary file.
105 - `editor.bin` (string) The editor determined from the environment.
106 - `editor.args` (array) Default arguments for the bin
107 - `tempFile` (string) Path to temporary file. Can be changed, but be careful as the temporary file probably already
108 exists and would need be removed manually.
109 - `lastExitStatus` (number) The last exit code emitted from the editor.
113 - `prefix` (string) *Optional* A prefix for the file name.
114 - `postfix` (string; *Optional* A postfix for the file name. Useful if you want to provide an extension.
115 - `mode` (number) *Optional* Which mode to create the file with. e.g. 644
116 - `template` (string) *Optional* A template for the filename. See [tmp](https://www.npmjs.com/package/tmp).
117 - `dir` (string) *Optional* Which path to store the file.
121 All errors have a simple message explaining what went wrong. They all also have an `originalError` property containing
122 the original error thrown for debugging purposes.
126 Everything is synchronous to make sure the editor has complete control of the stdin and stdout. Testing has shown
127 async launching of the editor can lead to issues when using readline or other packages which try to read from stdin or
128 write to stdout. Seeing as this will be used in an interactive CLI environment, I made the decision to force the package
129 to be synchronous. If you know a reliable way to force all stdin and stdout to be limited only to the child_process,
132 If async is really needed, you can use `editAsync` or `runAsync`. If you are using readline or have anything else
133 listening to the stdin or you write to stdout, you will most likely have problem, so make sure to remove any other
134 listeners on stdin, stdout, or stderr.
138 [![asciicast](https://asciinema.org/a/a1qh9lypbe65mj0ivfuoslz2s.png)](https://asciinema.org/a/a1qh9lypbe65mj0ivfuoslz2s)
140 ## Breaking Changes from v2 to v3
142 - NodeJS 0.12 support dropped.
143 - Switched to named imports.
144 - All "snake_cased" variables and properties are now "camelCased".
145 - `ExternalEditor.temp_file` is now `ExternalEditor.tempFile`.
146 - `ExternalEditor.last_exit_status` is now `ExternalEditor.lastExitStatus`.
147 - `Error.original_error` is now `Error.originalError`.
151 The MIT License (MIT)
153 Copyright (c) 2016-2018 Kevin Gravier
155 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
156 of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
157 in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
158 to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
159 copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
160 furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
162 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
163 copies or substantial portions of the Software.
165 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
166 IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
167 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
168 AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
169 LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
170 OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE