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Express provides a handy method to transfer a file as attachment: Response.download().
Once a user hits a route that sends a file using this method, browsers will prompt the user for download.
The Response.download() method allows you to send a file attached to the request, and the browser instead of showing it in the page, it will save it to disk.
app.get('/', (req, res) => res.download('./file.pdf'))
In the context of an app:
const express = require('express')
const app = express()
app.get('/', (req, res) => res.download('./file.pdf'))
app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server ready'))
You can set the file to be sent with a custom filename:
res.download('./file.pdf', 'user-facing-filename.pdf')
This method provides a callback function which you can use to execute code once the file has been sent:
res.download('./file.pdf', 'user-facing-filename.pdf', (err) => {
if (err) {
//handle error
return
} else {
//do something
}
})