Creating ReadStream From Uploaded File on Node.js

Question

I am trying to receive a file on Node.js Express framework (via express-fileupload middleware), and then POST it directly to another server via the request package without saving it on the first device's disk and then re-reading it.

const streamifier = require('streamifier');
const fileUpload = require('express-fileupload');

app.use(fileUpload());

app.post('/upload', function(req, res) {
  var fileBuffer = req.files.upload.data;
  var fileReadStream = streamifier.createReadStream(fileBuffer);

  //Use 'request' to send fileReadStream to another API for additional processing
}

However, the receiving API does not receive any file when I run this code.

When I run this other code, however, it works fine, but fs is only able to create a ReadStream from a file on the server, so it would involve me saving the file to some temporary hard disk location first, reading it again, and then sending it to the remote API, which I think is a bit wasteful.

var fs = require('fs');

app.post('/upload', function(req, res) {
  var fileReadStream = fs.createReadStream('test.txt');

  //Use 'request' to send fileReadStream to another API for additional processing
}

Any idea why the 1st code block results in no file received by the external API, while the 2nd one works perfectly fine? It seems that fileReadStream would be the same in both cases.

big213 · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-02 06:08:00Z

5

Turns out I should have just been sending the buffer by itself without transforming it into a ReadStream. However, I did have to add the name to it, or the receiving API wouldn't recognize that I was sending a file.

const fileUpload = require('express-fileupload');

app.use(fileUpload());

app.post('/upload', function(req, res) {
  var fileBuffer = req.files.upload.data;
  fileBuffer.name = 'test.png';

  //Use 'request' to send fileBuffer to another API for additional processing
}

answered Oct 2, 2017 at 6:08

big213

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1 Comment

Daniel Over a year ago

excellent! It works perfectly for me!

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