How can I get a group of XML files from a ftp server in Typescript?

Question

I try to load a group of XML files from a ftp Server by using the ftp node module.

It worked not so I needed. No async/await is implemented. It's bad to integrate in good readable code.

Is there a better way?

my bad code is (it work, but this asynchron staff is confused!):

import Client from 'ftp';
import ReadableStream = NodeJS.ReadableStream;

const c = new Client();

function streamToString(stream: ReadableStream) {
    // lets have a ReadableStream as a stream variable
    const chunks = [];

    for await (const chunk of stream) {
        chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk));
    }

    return Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf-8");
}
const getFile = async () => {
    let fname: string = ""

    c.on('ready', () => {
        c.list(".", async (err, list) => {
            if (err) throw err;
            // console.dir(list);
            for (const fileProp of list) {
                console.log("fileProp: " , './' +fileProp.name)
                fname = fileProp.name

                if(fileProp.name.match(/.*\.xml/)){

                     c.get('./' + fileProp.name,  (err, stream) => {
                        if (err) throw err;
                        console.log("fname: " + fname)
                        const result =  streamToString(stream)

                        console.log("file content:\n" + result)
                        return
                    });
                }
            }

            c.end();
        });
    });
    c.on('error', () => {
        console.log('handle error');
    });

    await c.connect({
        host: "myserver.com",
        user: "myuser",
        password: "mypassword",
        //debug: m => console.log(m)
    })

}

Answer 1

The better way is to use the basic-ftp module. The ftp module is very old and has not implemented the async/await feature.

So with basic-ftp you can implement a clear straight forward solution - simple and good readable.

import * as streamBuffers from "stream-buffers"
import * as ftp from "basic-ftp"
import {FileInfo} from "basic-ftp";

const testFtp = async () => {
    await baseFtpTest()
    console.log("end testFtp")
}

const baseFtpTest = async () => {
    const client = new ftp.Client()
    client.ftp.verbose = true
    try {
        await client.access({
            host: "myserver.com",
            user: "myuser",
            password: "mypassword",
            //secure: true
        })

        console.log(await client.list())
        let flist: FileInfo[] = await client.list()

        for (const fileProp of flist) {
            if(fileProp.name.match(/.*\.xml/)) {
                console.log("fname: " + fileProp.name)
                let sbuff: streamBuffers.WritableStreamBuffer = new streamBuffers.WritableStreamBuffer()
                await client.downloadTo(sbuff, fileProp.name)
                let content: string | false = sbuff.getContentsAsString()
                console.log("content:", content)
            }
        }
    }
    catch(err) {
        console.log(err)
    }
    client.close()
}

debugger

testFtp()