I've created a simple HTML page that takes some input from the user to store on a server to be retrieved later -- this is how the text is treated when the user clicks a submit button (I've placed numbered comments under the key lines but provide the surrounding code for context):

var origText = $('#input-field').val(),

        // 1. GETS WHATEVER USER TYPED INTO INPUT FIELD

    jsonText = '{ text: ' + origText + ' }',

        // 2. WRAPS IT AN OBJECT STRING

    ajaxText = encodeURIComponent(jsonText);

        // 3. ENCODES THE STRING FOR USE WITH AJAX



$.ajax({

    url: 'http://localhost:8124/',

    data: 'save=' + ajaxText + '&fn=save',

        // 4. THE ENCODED STRING IS ADDED TO THE QUERY SECTION OF THE AJAX REQUEST

    dataType: jsonp,

    cache: false,

    timeout: 5000,

    success: function(data) {

        $(#input-ready).html(data.save.text);

    },

    error: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {

        alert('error ' + textStatus +   + errorThrown);

    }

});

The request is sent to a NodeJS server I am running locally, which (within the http.createServer callback) does the following:

var queryObj = url.parse(req.url, true).query;

    // 1. GET THE QUERY PART OF THE REQUEST/URL AS AN OBJECT

res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'application/javascript'});

    // 2. PREPARE SERVER'S RESPONSE AS JAVASCRIPT

queryObj.fn = queryObj.fn || '';

queryObj.save = queryObj.save || '';

queryObj.callback = queryObj.callback || '';

    // 3. ENSURE THE PROPERTIES NEEDED ARE DEFINED, EVEN IF FALSE-Y

if (queryObj.fn === 'save') {

    // 4. IF THE REQUEST IS TO SAVE THEN WRITE THE USER INPUT AS OBJECT TO A TEXT FILE

    fs.writeFile('jsonp-storage-2.txt', queryObj.save, function (err) {

        if (err) {

            throw err;

        } else {

            console.log('Saved message successfully.', 'Ready to be read now.');

            res.end(queryObj.callback +

                '({ fn: ' + queryObj.fn + ', save: ' + queryObj.save + ' })');

        }

    });

}

Assuming the user types and submits this is a line of text, the output on the server is a text file called jsonp-storage-2.txt containing this:

{ text: this is a line of text }

After all that, my question is quite simple. How do I prettify the output in the text file?

The code needs work but I'm thinking of using this to try storing larger objects for reading later. However, at the server end, I would like the files (for now) to be easy for me to read when opening them with Notepad, for example.

I have tried using n and t like so:

jsonText = '{nttext: ' + origText + 'n}',

I've also tried r. But the lines remain unbroken.

Some answers suggest that I can only do this at the level of the encoded string or after the file has been written. Perhaps I missed something simple. Is there a way to do it by manipulating my jsonText variable?

UPDATE:

Just to be clearer about the output desired -- currently the content of the text file produced looks like this:

{ text: this is a line of text }

But I'd like to know if it can be produced like this:

{

    text: this is a line of text

}