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What is a Message Object?

Every node in Robomotion processes a message object that is past from a previous node.

Message Object passed

A message object is a simple JSON object that looks something like this;

{
  "id": "cahuccj3cf1scmmfcc4uqmjwgt", 
  "payload": 1668877379280
}

Whenever a msg object is passed to a node, that node manipulates the object, either by adding, deleting or updating fields in the passed object.

Function Node​

There is a special node in Robomotion where you can manipulate this object with Javascript.

The Function node is used to write Javascript inside your flows.

Function Edit

This function adds my_new_field to the msg object. Function node should always return the msg object;

Debug node​

You can use Debug node to see what is being passed to the next node. Below you can see the added my_new_field in the Debug output panel.

Update Message Object

Where is it used for?​

So you have a JSON object that is passed through the flow and updated by the nodes or a Function node, but where is it used for?

The message object can be used to create dynamic values.

As an example, lets say you have an Excel file with a static path like C:\Users\John\Desktop\test.xlsx

You can open this Excel with the Open Excel node by providing this path directly as below;

Open Excel Custom

What if you have a file that has today's date in its name but is in a fixed folder? Here you can use a simple Javascript as below;


var date = new Date().toISOString().split("T")[0];

// ex: C:\\Users\\John\\Reports\\2022-11-19.xlsx
msg.path = "C:\\Users\\John\\Reports\\" + date + ".xlsx;

and now you can use this dynamically created path value in Open Excel property as below;

Open Excel Dynamic