node.js axios download file stream and writeFile

Question

i want download a pdf file with axios and save on disk (server side) with fs.writeFile, i have tried:

axios.get(\'https://xxx/my.pd         


        

Answer 1

This is my example code run with node js There is a synctax error

should be writeFile not WriteFile

const axios = require('axios');
const fs = require('fs');
axios.get('http://www.africau.edu/images/default/sample.pdf', {responseType: 'blob'}).then(response => {
  fs.writeFile('./my.pdf', response.data, (err) => {
        if (err) throw err;
        console.log('The file has been saved!');
    });
});

After the file is saved it might look like in a text editor, but the file was saved properly

%PDF-1.3
%����

1 0 obj
<<
/Type /Catalog
/Outlines 2 0 R
/Pages 3 0 R
>>
endobj

2 0 obj
<<
/Type /Outlines
/Count 0
>>
endobj

3 0 obj
<<
/Type /Pages
/Count 2
/Kids [ 4 0 R 6 0 R ] 
>>
endobj

Answer 2

You can simply use response.data.pipe and fs.createWriteStream to pipe response to file

axios({
    method: "get",
    url: "https://xxx/my.pdf",
    responseType: "stream"
}).then(function (response) {
    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("/temp/my.pdf"));
});

Answer 3

import download from "downloadjs";

export const downloadFile = async (fileName) => {
    axios({
        method: "get",
        url: `/api/v1/users/resume/${fileName}`,
        responseType: "blob",
    }).then(function (response) {
        download(response.data, fileName);
    });
};

it's work fine to me

Answer 4

I have tried, and I'm sure that using response.data.pipe and fs.createWriteStream can work.

---

Besides, I want to add my situation and solution

Situation:

• using koa to develop a node.js server
• using axios to get a pdf via url
• using pdf-parse to parse the pdf
• extract some information of pdf and return it as json to browser

Solution:

const Koa = require('koa');
const app = new Koa();
const axios = require('axios')
const fs = require("fs")
const pdf = require('pdf-parse');
const utils = require('./utils')

app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000)

app.use(async (ctx, next) => {
      let url = 'https://path/name.pdf'
      let resp = await axios({
          url: encodeURI(url),
          responseType: 'arraybuffer'
        })

        let data = await pdf(resp.data)

        ctx.body = {
            phone: utils.getPhone(data.text),
            email: utils.getEmail(data.text),
        }
})

In this solution, it doesn't need to write file and read file, it's more efficient.

Answer 5

// This works perfectly well! 
const axios = require('axios'); 

axios.get('http://www.sclance.com/pngs/png-file-download/png_file_download_1057991.png', {responseType: "stream"} )  
.then(response => {  
// Saving file to working directory  
    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("todays_picture.png"));  
})  
    .catch(error => {  
    console.log(error);  
});  

Answer 6

The problem with broken file is because of backpressuring in node streams. You may find this link useful to read: https://nodejs.org/es/docs/guides/backpressuring-in-streams/

I'm not really a fan of using Promise base declarative objects in JS codes as I feel it pollutes the actual core logic & makes the code hard to read. On top of it, you have to provision event handlers & listeners to make sure the code is completed.

A more cleaner approach on the same logic which the accepted answer proposes is given below. It uses the concepts of stream pipelines.

const util = require("util");
const stream = require("stream");
const pipeline = util.promisify(stream.pipeline);

const downloadFile = async () => {
    try {
        await pipeline( axios.get('https://xxx/my.pdf', {responseType: 'blob'}), 
                            fs.createWriteStream("/temp/my.pdf"));
        console.log("donwload pdf pipeline successfull");   
    } catch (error) {
        console.error("donwload pdf pipeline failed", error);
    }
}

exports.downloadFile = downloadFile

I hope you find this useful.