html - An empty string with File-IO in VoltRb -

i'm trying file-reading in voltrb , embed contents of files in views. planned read files on server-side (since client-side doesn't support file-reading), , pass strings of files on client, seems i'm getting empty string files on client.

here code demonstrate problem:

file.txt

file contents 

main_controller.rb

if ruby_engine == 'ruby'   file       = file.open("app/files_to_read/lib/file.txt", "r")   $file_text = file.read   file.close   puts $file_text # returns "file contents" on server side   puts $file_text.class # returns "string" on server side end  module main   class maincontroller < volt::modelcontroller     model :page      def index       page._text = $file_text       puts $file_text # returns empty string in browser console     end     ...   end end 

index.html

<:title>   home  <:body>   <h1>home</h1>   <p>{{ _text }}</p>   <!-- ^ empty string --> 

my directory tree looks this:

app ├── files_to_read │   └── lib │       └── file.txt └── main     ├── assets     ├── config     ├── controllers     │   └── main_controller.rb     ├── lib     ├── tasks     └── views         └── main             ├── about.html             ├── index.html             └── main.html 

why getting empty string file , how fix this?

so 1 thing keep in mind controllers run twice, once on client, , once on server. client 1 different instance ones on server, won't have access $file_text global.

what can though create task reads file , returns text of file. check out @rickcarlino's excellent tasks tutorial video: http://datamelon.io/blog/2015/creating-volt-task-objects.html

thanks