FileAttachment API from nodejs

[declann]

Hi,

Can we use the FileAttachment API from nodejs, in order to easily move logic from md into a JS loader?

I have a few Excel file loads, and dropping down to exceljs is a little messy relatively. I'm on the verge of copying the handy functions from @observablehq/stdlib/src/xlsx.js.

But it would be much nicer if I can just use the FileAttachment API in nodejs.

I tried:

import {FileAttachment} from "@observablehq/stdlib";

but FileAttachment isn't exported; FileAttachments is, but it's not something I've seen used directly anyplace?

Any pointers much appreciated!

Thanks,
Declan

[mbostock]

This isn’t currently supported, no. You can use readFile from fs to read files in Node.js, and you’re free to copy the helper methods for parsing out of our standard library. But, be aware that Framework doesn’t actually use @observablehq/stdlib for the standard library; we instead forked it to create a new version for Framework:

https://github.com/observablehq/framework/tree/main/src/client/stdlib

For reading Excel files:

https://github.com/observablehq/framework/blob/main/src/client/stdlib/xlsx.js

I’d like to extract this code from Framework and publish it to npm; please upvote #852 if you are interested in this feature.

[declann]

Thanks for the answer and pointers!