Node.js: Download an (auto-generated) file from a PHP URL

Question

There exists a url which dynamically creates a file (zip) for download. http://example.com/generateZipFile.php

In a browser, opening the url simply opens the download dialog box, and a user can save the file to their hard drive.

I need to automatically download this file using node.js

I have tried the following code:

var file = fs.createWriteStream("http://example.com/generateZip.php");
var request = http.get(URL, function(response) {
    response.pipe(file);
});

However it only downloads the content of what appears to be a HTML redirect page to the current incantation of the zip file, not the zip file itself:

> <head><title>Document Moved</title></head> <body><h1>Object
> Moved</h1>This document may be found <a
> HREF="http://example.com/generated12345.zip">here</a></body>

I can not hard code the generated name of the zip file, as it is subject to change.

have a look at [express download](http://stackoverflow.com/a/7288883/3828573) — Shayan, Mar 08 '16 at 07:10
cheerio might help you if you need to scrape manually, but node-metainspector will give you links from a remote web page. — MrVaykadji, Mar 08 '16 at 07:12

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 08 '16 at 07:49

http module does not support redirection for queries. You can use request module:

require('request')
  .get('http://example.com/generateZip.php')
  .on('error', function(error) {
    console.log(error)
  })
  .pipe(require('fs').createWriteStream(__dirname + '/tmp.file'))

Node.js: Download an (auto-generated) file from a PHP URL

1 Answers1