Windows setup: connector, base64, and search (fs.walk) problems & solutions

[Pilsertech]

Common Problems & Solutions When Setting Up elfinder-node (Windows/Node.js)

1. Setting up connectors and file paths

• Problem: Issues with target hashes, root paths, and connector URLs (especially on Windows).
• Solution: Double-check your connector configuration (roots, path, URL) in the backend. Ensure paths use correct slashes (\ for Windows, / for Linux). For initial blank targets, patch to use the correct hash (e.g., v0_Lw for / root).

2. "The string to be encoded contains characters outside of the Latin1 range."

• Problem: Base64 encoding/decoding fails with non-Latin1 strings (Unicode paths, etc.).
• Solution: Replace uses of the base-64 npm package with Node.js Buffer for base64 encoding/decoding in lfs.utils.js:

  const base64 = {
    encode: (str) => Buffer.from(str, 'utf8').toString('base64'),
    decode: (str) => Buffer.from(str, 'base64').toString('utf8')
  };

  This works for all Unicode file paths.

3. Search fails: "TypeError: fs.walk is not a function"

• Problem: elfinder-node's search uses the deprecated fs.walk API, which is not present in recent fs-extra.
• Solution: Replace the api.search implementation in LocalFileStorage.js with a custom async recursive function using fs.readdir and fs.stat:

  api.search = async function (opts, res) {
    // ... see detailed code in thread ...
  };

  This removes the dependency on fs.walk and works for all directory trees.

General Tip

• Always check your Node.js version and your dependencies (fs-extra, etc.).
• If you update elfinder-node, re-apply these fixes as needed.

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Thanks to the community for their help! If you need more details, see the full discussion or ask below.