UIX - How to read file contents OR get file path to open in custom Python app (and then read_file)

You would use the API to download the file.  Maybe something like M-Files API - DownloadFileAsDataURIEx Method would help?

You would use the API to download the file.  Maybe something like M-Files API - DownloadFileAsDataURIEx Method would help?

Hello Craig,

I see, I was hoping there would be some function to do these things in UIX too, but it's alright. But this function is great, thank you! I even found some more similar to this is VAF, like GetTextContentsForFile, so I just need to test if it works with my language as well. 

Now I just need to learn to combine the UIX and VAF together, so hurray to another at least 8 hours of digging through GitHub samples and documentation :D

I will post my solution here once I figure stuff out, for future references.

Have a good day!

But, so...

ReadTextFile is for reading files within the application, not files from the vault.  GetTextContentsForFile is for getting the text data, maybe for indexing or similar.  Neither are specifically what you want, which is to read the file contents.

If the Python script is running on the local computer then you could simply get the local path to the file and pass that to Python.  It should be able to read the data directly from the virtual drive.  If the Python script is running somewhere else then you either need to read the data within Python (i.e. use the COM or REST APIs to download the file), or you need to pass the file data to Python (e.g. by using the method I highlighted that can get the data as a data uri).

I'm not sure where VAF comes into this.

Okay, you've got a point. I was so tangled up in all the code that I thought that I could not read or download a file using UIX, but I was just at the wrong place - I was looking for a function to read/download inside the dashboard itself because I forgot all about the .js file... 

So no VAF, actually did it with UIX and I feel bad for it being this easy.

if (selectedItems.Count === 1){
	var objectFileAndVersions = selectedItems.ObjectFiles.Item(1);
	var fileVer = objectFileAndVersions.ObjectFile.FileVer;
	var objVer = objectFileAndVersions.ObjVer;
	
	// Get file text contents
	fileContents = shellFrame.ShellUI.Vault.ObjectFileOperations.GetTextContentForFile(objVer, fileVer);
	
	// Show dashboard with file contents
	tab.ShowDashboard("MyDashboard", fileContents);
	//tab.ShowDashboard("MyDashboard", selectedItems);
	tab.visible = true;
}

Thanks for help, I might still use the DownloadFileAsDataURIEx method later, but now for testing purposes the GetTextContentForFile method is enough.