ACtl.getFile

Gets the content of any local file or URL. The maximum file size is only limited by the available RAM.

ACtl.getFile(fileLocation[,returnType]) fileLocation Type: string Either a URL, data URI, local path or UNC path of the file. It can be relative to the script's location (if there is one). It can also contain placeholders such as <desktop>, <documents> and others. returnType Type: string Default: 'text' How to return the file's content.

'text'	A text string
'json'	Same type returned by JSON.parse
'html'	A DocumentFragment object
'htmlDoc'	A Document object
'xmlDoc'	An XMLDocument object
'css'	An HTMLStyleElement object
'module'	A Javascript module object (same as ACtl.import)
'image'	An HTMLImageElement object
'canvas'	An HTMLCanvasElement object
'binary'	A binary string
'blob'	A Blob object
'file'	A File object
'objectUrl'	An object URL string
'dataUri'	A data URI string
'base64'	A Base64 string

Returns Type: Promise Returns immediately. The Promise will resolve with the file content as specified by returnType. Throws Type: string Error description if fileLocation cannot be accessed or if the file cannot be interpreted as returnType.

Examples

Get the first Google result for a search term.


	let search = 'Olympics' ;
	//Download the search results as an HTML fragment
	let html = await ACtl.getFile('https://google.com/search?q='+search, 'html') ;
	//Get the first search result
	let result = html.querySelector('#main a[href^=http][ping]') ;
	//Extract the title and URL of the result
	let title = result.innerText ;
	let url = result.href ;
	alert(`TITLE:\n${title}\n\nURL:\n${url}`) ;

Add a text label to a local image file.


	let filePath = 'C:/Projects/image.png' ;
	//Load the image file as a canvas object
	let canvas = await ACtl.getFile(filePath, 'canvas') ;
	let ctx = canvas.getContext('2d') ;
	//Set text style
	ctx.font = '14px arial' ;
	ctx.fillStyle = 'blue' ;
	ctx.textBaseline = 'top' ;
	//Draw the text in the canvas at coordinates [5,5]
	ctx.fillText('Hello, world!', 5, 5) ;
	//Save the canvas object back to the file
	await ACtl.saveFile(filePath, canvas) ;

Obtain Tesla's current stock price from a JSON service.


	let url = `http://bloomberg.com/markets2/api/intraday/TSLA:US?days=1&interval=5`;
	let data = await ACtl.getFile(url, 'json') ;
	alert("TESLA stock price is: $" + data[0].price.slice(-1)[0].value ) ;

Scripting API Script Isolation Asynchronicity Backgrnd Scripts GUI vs API ACtl.include ACtl.import ACtl.getFile ACtl.saveFile ACtl.saveURL ACtl.openURL ACtl.closeTab ACtl.runInTab ACtl.runInFrames ACtl.runInPageCtx ACtl.getTabInfo ACtl.getTabIds ACtl.TAB_ID ACtl.setTabState ACtl.captureTab ACtl.execAction ACtl.runCommand ACtl.getClipboard ACtl.setClipboard ACtl.expand ACtl.switchState ACtl.var ACtl.pubVar ACtl.on ACtl.off ACtl.sleep ACtl.STOP_CHAIN ACtl.STOP_FULL_SEQ