how to properly execute custom node module as a function - node.js

Question

Getting started with Node.
Put together a custom module, which parses an Excel file into a MongoDB:
exports.excelFileParser = function(fileName){
if(typeof require !== 'undefined') XLSX = require('xlsx');
var mongodb = require('mongodb');
var MongoClient = mongodb.MongoClient;
var url = 'mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/my_database';
var workbook = XLSX.readFile('./uploads/' + fileName);
var worksheet = workbook.Sheets[workbook.SheetNames[0]];
var json_conversion = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_json(worksheet);
MongoClient.connect(url, function (err, db) {
if (err) {
console.log('Unable to connect to the mongoDB server. Error:', err);
} else {
console.log('Connection established to', url);
db.open(function(err, client){
client.createCollection("test_collection", function(err, col) {
client.collection("test_collection", function(err, col) {
{
json_conversion.forEach(function(record) {
col.insert(record, function(err, result) {
if(err) {
console.log(err);
}
else {
}
});
})
}
});
});
});
console.log("finished");
db.close();
}
});
};
In my server.js I require this module as follows:
var excelFileParser = require("excel-file-parser");
At a certain point in my node app, I need to execute the functionality of this module, and pass it a file name to be parsed.
When I try it this way:
excelFileParser(file.fieldname);
I get
TypeError: object is not a function
exception.
What is the proper way to run my module from within server.js?

Answer 1

Lets look at your module:
exports.excelFileParser = function(fileName) {
...
}
When you call require('excel-file-parser') you basically get the exports object.
So to invoke the function you have created you need to call the function:
var myParser = require("excel-file-parser");
myParser.excelFileParser('filename');