Serving Temporary Files with NodeJs

Question

I am building a NodeJs SOAP client. Originally, I imagined the server (ie the node SOAP client) would allow downloading documents through a REST API (the REST API is authentica

Answer 1

If you are visiting this SO page after Dec 2015, you may find that the previous solution isn't working (At least it isn't working for me). I found a different solution so I thought I would provide it here for future readers.

app.get('/download', function(req, res){
    res.download(pathToFile, 'fileNameForEndUser.pdf', function(err) {
        if (!err) {
            fs.unlink(path);
        }
    });
});

Answer 2

Found two SO questions that answer my question. So apparently we don't need to use the express.static middleware. We just need the filesystem to download a file:

app.get('/download', function(req, res){
 var file = __dirname + '/upload-folder/dramaticpenguin.MOV';
 res.download(file); // Set disposition and send it.
});

If we want to stream and then delete follow:

app.get('/download', function(req, res){
   var stream = fs.createReadStream('<filepath>/example.pdf', {bufferSize: 64 * 1024})
   stream.pipe(res);

   var had_error = false;
   stream.on('error', function(err){
      had_error = true;
   });
   stream.on('close', function(){
   if (!had_error) fs.unlink('<filepath>/example.pdf');
});