Custom Node with embedded MQTT function

[pinode]

Hi,
I'm working on a project where I'm trying to embed the MQTT function within a number of custom nodes and while I've managed to get certain aspects working I've hit a brick wall. I came across this thread ( Examples that publish/subscribe MQTT?) where it seems like the OP may have solved the problem but there wasn't any detailed explanation.

So, I'm trying to incorporate an MQTT client in a custom node that talks to the broker, which then passes the message on to an ESP8266 controller. So far have I have achieved the following:

1. I can send messages to the ESP8266 via the broker without a problem & it intreprets the messages
2. However, I cannot receive the messages from the ESP via the broker

I'm attaching my code and would appreciate your opinion and any comments on what I'm doing wrong and how I might make this work.

Steve

const mqtt = require('mqtt');   
module.exports = function (RED) 
{
    function MQTTwithinNode(config) 
    {
        RED.nodes.createNode(this, config);
        let node = this;

        let options = {
        	username: config.username,
            password: config.password,
            connectTimeout: 7 * 1000
        };

        let my_client = mqtt.connect(`mqtt://${config.host}:${config.port}`, options);

	node.on('input', function(msg) {           
		var topic1="DevCtrl/LED/SetFrequency";
		var topic2="DevCtrl/LED/SetDutyCycle";
		var mqtt_msg = "This is a buffer for mqtt messages";
		if (msg.topic == "frequency") {
			mqtt_msg = String(msg.payload);
			my_client.publish(topic1,mqtt_msg,pub_options);
		} else if (msg.topic == "dutycycle") {
			mqtt_msg = String(msg.payload);
			my_client.publish(topic2,mqtt_msg,pub_options);
		}
            	node.send(msg);
        });

 
	var pub_options = {
		retain:true,
		qos:1 
        };

        my_client.on('connect', function (connack) {
		var topic = "DevCtrl/LED/#";
		my_client.subscribe(topic,{qos:1});
        });

	my_client.on('message',function(topic, message, packet) {
		console.log("message is "+ message);
		console.log("topic is "+ topic);
		msg.payload = "topic is: " + topic + " message is: " + message;
		node.send(msg);
	});

    }
    RED.nodes.registerType("mqtt-innode", MQTTwithinNode);
}

[TotallyInformation]

Have you checked to see if that subscription has actually connected? I also assume that you've checked the subscription with another client to make sure you haven't mis-spelled something (a mistake I make all too often)?

The $SYS/broker/subscriptions topic tells you how many subscriptions are active on the broker.

I would certainly expand your subscribe code to include the callback with error check.

Couple of stylistic things too that you are absolutely free to ignore: Your indentation is a bit weird which makes the code hard to read. Also, several of your lets could be consts - you may know that you can make an object a const and still change the contents (just not replace the whole object).

[pinode]

Hi Julian,

Thanks for your response and suggestions. As it turns out, I solved the issue, which I'll explain below in case others encounter similar problems when working with the mqtt.

Most of the code actually worked all the time and the problem that I was experiencing relates to a type mismatch between strings and objects in the console.log statements (see below), which attempts to concatenate the output into a single string; I assumed these were all strings. Once I just used the objects on their own, everything worked perfectly.

console.log("message is "+ message);
            console.log("topic is "+ topic);
            msg.payload = "topic is: " + topic + " message is: " + message;

Thanks again for your help.