Export HTMLtable to CSV in electron

Question

I am making an electron app (using Node Js) where I need to export HTML table data to a .csv file. I followed this tutorial to implement this. The function I used is as follows.

$(document).ready(function () {

    function exportTableToCSV($table, filename) {

        var $rows = $table.find('tr:has(td)'),

        // Temporary delimiter characters unlikely to be typed by keyboard
        // This is to avoid accidentally splitting the actual contents
        tmpColDelim = String.fromCharCode(11), // vertical tab character
        tmpRowDelim = String.fromCharCode(0), // null character

        // actual delimiter characters for CSV format
        colDelim = '","',
        rowDelim = '"\r\n"',

        // Grab text from table into CSV formatted string
        csv = '"' + $rows.map(function (i, row) {
            var $row = $(row),
                $cols = $row.find('td');

            return $cols.map(function (j, col) {
                var $col = $(col),
                    text = $col.text();

                return text.replace(/"/g, '""'); // escape double quotes

            }).get().join(tmpColDelim);

        }).get().join(tmpRowDelim)
            .split(tmpRowDelim).join(rowDelim)
            .split(tmpColDelim).join(colDelim) + '"';

        // Deliberate 'false', see comment below
        if (false && window.navigator.msSaveBlob) {
            var blob = new Blob([decodeURIComponent(csv)], {
                type: 'text/csv;charset=utf8'
            });

            window.navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, filename);
        } else if (window.Blob && window.URL) {
            // HTML5 Blob        
            var blob = new Blob([csv], { type: 'text/csv;charset=utf8' });
            var csvUrl = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

            $(this).attr({
                'download': filename,
                'href': csvUrl
            });
        } else {
            // Data URI
            var csvData = 'data:application/csv;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(csv);

            $(this).attr({
                'download': filename,
                'href': csvData,
                'target': '_blank'
            });
        }
    }

    // This must be a hyperlink
    $(".export").on('click', function (event) {
        // CSV
        var args = [$('#dvData>table'), 'export.csv'];

        exportTableToCSV.apply(this, args);

        // If CSV, don't do event.preventDefault() or return false
        // We actually need this to be a typical hyperlink
    });
});

For the output csv file, I have given a default name "export.csv".

The problem that I am facing is as follows.

When I run this electron app in Windows (I have used electron-packager to package it, Ubuntu being my host computer),

In the Windows dialog box that appears asking me where to save the document

If I don't change the default name "export.csv" present in the "File name" field, I get a valid export.csv file as the output. A screenshot is attached below for reference

But If I change the name present in the "File name" field to a different name (ex : temp), I don't get a .csv file . Instead I get a file as shown in the image below.

Can someone please tell me how can I get a valid .csv file as my output file even if the user changes the output "File Name"?

Answer 1

You haven't shown the code you're using to display the Windows dialog box, but I think the simplest thing to do is to make it default to a .csv extension.

You can do this by setting the filters in your call to showSaveDialog.

For example:

var filename = dialog.showSaveDialog({
  filters: [
    { name: 'CSV files', extensions: ['csv'] }
  ]
});

That way, when the user enters their own filename, the result will default to a .csv extension.