node-lts-notifier

A CLI tool that checks the node.js RSS feed and sends a notification mail whenver it detects a new LTS version.

The tool is intended to be run by a schedueler such as a cron-task or a jenkins job.

Uses the nodemailer npm package, and requires to be configured with an SMTP server.

Install

npm i node-lts-notifier -g

since: 0.4.0:

Installing node-lts-notifier using -g adds an additional command to your machine:

• node-lts-notif

Run it from your shell or from your favorite schedueler.

Configure

since: 0.4.0

Once ran, it expects a configuration file, and will terminate with an error and a friendly message if this file is not found, or if it cannot be parsed as a valid yaml.

e.g:

ERROR: Cannot open configuration file
tried path:
  /home/centos/.lts-notif.yaml

effecting env-vars:
 - LTS_NOTIF_FILE - path to the yaml file
 - LTS_NOTIF_HOME - when LTS_NOTIF_FILE is unset, may indicate location of a .lts-notif.yaml file
 - HOME/HOMEPATH  - when LTS_NOTIF_HOME is unset, .lts-notif.yaml is searched in user's home directory

error:
  ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/centos/.lts-notif.yaml'

If you provided a full path usign LTS_NOTIF_FILE or you provided the path to the directory a .lts-notif.yaml is found using LTS_NOTIF_HOME, or you have placed it in your home directory - the file it's looking for should look like the following example:

message:
  to:
   - name:    Osher E.
     address: [e-mail]
  from:
   - name:    Node LTS
     address: [e-mail]

nodemailer:
  type:     smtp
  options:
    host:   mailgw.mycooldomain.com
    tls:
      rejectUnauthorized: false

reported:

NOTES:

1. This is a rather basic example, which passes to nodemailer smtp configuration of a relay server. However - you can pass in nodemailer.options any valid nodemailer configuration. version 0.4.0 supports just smtp setups - because they do not require any processing and can be passed as is to nodemailer. Future versions will add gmail, aws, etc. Having said that - nodemailer's smtp setup support quite a lot :)
2. The reported section must be in the end of the file and the file must end with an empty line. The code appends a line as a string array-item to this file for each reported LTS version. It does so in order to remember what it has already reported before.

Usage

since 0.4.0:

Run the node-lts-notif from your shell or from your favorite schedueler.

since 0.1.2:

This initial version implements only the core module, without the bin file to wrap it in a mature CLI - this wrap will come in the future, as my free time allows it.

The way I run it now is using a Jenkins job, where the command is in the following spirit (domain and emails replaced with example.com):

node -e "require('node-lts-notifier/lib')({reportFrom: 'Node LTS Notifier<[e-mail]>', reportTo: ['[e-mail]','[e-mail]'], smtp: { host: 'mailgw.example.com',  tls: { rejectUnauthorized: false }}}).then(console.log);"

Mind the smtp field in the passed options. This example is the simplest - it uses a relay smtp in the local LAN.

However - this smtp object is currently passed as is to nodemailer - so you may pass whatever you need, including creds. The only nodemailer config that is not trivial is aws transport - which will be dealt in the future.

Custom formatter

since 0.4.0

experimental: You can provide a node.js module to handle message formatting by providing in your configuration a customFormatter key.

• When it's an object - it's expected to have property module - a path to the module.
• When it's a string - it's converted to an object, using the string value as the module property.

If the loaded module exports an .init(conf) method - it's being passed the customFormatter section, and the returned value is used as the custom formatter. If not - the returned value of the required module is passed as the custom formatter as is.

The value is overriding the built-in formatter, and may override:

• subject({title}):String - format your own subject
• body({title, pubDate, link, description}):String - format your own body from the info in feed
• message(feed, msgDefaults): message - overriding this method negates the previous two. it should return a valid nodemailer message object. The default returns:
  • from and to from msgDefaults - which is basically, the message section from the config,
  • subject, and html as formatted by the previous two APIs.

Future

• config check with idiot-proof error messages
• mature the repo
  • add a test suite
  • add CI
  • add coverage tool
  • move docs to a site / wiki
• support nodemailer gmail transport
• support nodemailer aws transport