How to download pdf file from url in node.js?

Question

I am creating an application to download pdf files from url and show in my dashboard page as grid wise.

I am using node.js with express framework.

exports.pdf = function(req, response) {
    var url ="http://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecopyrightform.pdf";

    http.get(url, function(res) {
     var chunks = [];
     res.on('data', function(chunk) {
     console.log('start');
     chunks.push(chunk);
    });

    res.on("end", function() {
      console.log('downloaded');
      var jsfile = new Buffer.concat(chunks).toString('base64');
      console.log('converted to base64');
      response.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
      response.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "X-Requested-With");
      response.header('content-type', 'application/pdf');
     response.send(jsfile);
    });
    }).on("error", function() {
   console.log("error");
   }); 
};

post the code you are using

George Rosario
– George Rosario

2014-09-20 05:57:19 +00:00
Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 5:57 — George Rosario
– George Rosario, Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 5:57

Ryan Shillington · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-25 19:32:08Z

17

For those looking to download a PDF server side, which is a bit of a different use case than the OP, here's how I did it using the request npm module:

const fs = require("fs");
const request = require("request-promise-native");

async function downloadPDF(pdfURL, outputFilename) {
    let pdfBuffer = await request.get({uri: pdfURL, encoding: null});
    console.log("Writing downloaded PDF file to " + outputFilename + "...");
    fs.writeFileSync(outputFilename, pdfBuffer);
}

downloadPDF("https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/pubs/ecf_faq.pdf", "c:/temp/somePDF.pdf");

answered Mar 25, 2019 at 19:32

Ryan Shillington

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2 Comments

James Over a year ago

this is not working it is giving me plain text file with pdf extension but not opening

Ryan Shillington Over a year ago

@James It's not supposed to open. It's just supposed to save the file as c:\temp\somePDF.pdf. If you want it to open in your PDF viewer, that's a different question entirely.

Syed Haseeb · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-02 07:28:04Z

3

Simple solution I used to download pdf in node js is by npm i node-downloader-helper and just add downlaod url:

const { DownloaderHelper } = require('node-downloader-helper');

const download = new DownloaderHelper('url', __dirname);
download.on('end', () => console.log('Download Completed'))
download.start();

answered Dec 2, 2020 at 7:28

Syed Haseeb

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Comments

George Rosario · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-20 06:03:22Z

2

This will Help.

response.setHeader("Content-Type", "text/pdf");

This Link will help

answered Sep 20, 2014 at 6:03

George Rosario

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Comments

Matt Korostoff · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-28 15:54:30Z

1

As of node 18, you can do this with no third party dependencies, using the native fetch API and the native filesystem API:

const pdfRespone = await fetch("https://example.com/file.pdf");
const pdfBuffer = await pdfRespone.arrayBuffer();
const binaryPdf = Buffer.from(pdfBuffer);
fs.writeFileSync("/your/file/name.pdf", binaryPdf, 'binary');

If you're dealing with very large files or have limited memory, you could also do this with streams, which would allow you to avoid loading the whole file into memory at once.

answered Jul 28, 2023 at 15:54

Matt Korostoff

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Comments

Tyler2P · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-26 11:11:18Z

0

If anyone is having issues (like I was) actually getting the PDF to open in a PDF viewer when using the request module, try setting the encoding in your call to null. Something like this:

async function downloadPDF(pdfURL, outputFilename, token) {
  const options = {
    url: pdfURL,
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/pdf',
      'Authorization': 'Bearer '+token,
    },
    encoding: null
  }
}

edited Jul 26, 2022 at 11:11

Tyler2P

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answered Jul 20, 2022 at 20:05

Gray

1

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