NodeJS Amazon AWS S3 getObject how to send file in API response to download

Question

I am building a NodeJS Express API that accepts a filepath as a parameter, gets an object from S3 and then sends the file back in the API response.

I am using the NodeJS Amazon AWS S3 SDK @aws-sdk/client-s3.

I have everything working up to returning the file in the API response.

Here is the controller. This is working to get the object as a readable stream from S3.

Question:

How do I return the file in the Node JS Express API response to download?

Note: I've already tried other suggestions in a few other questions but none of the solutions have worked to return the file in the API response.

I tried the answer in this question here but the file is downloaded on the server side, the file needs to be returned in the API response. How to save file from S3 using aws-sdk v3

Also the answer in this question here is using the v2 version of the SDK and this is v3. There is no .createReadStream() method anymore. NodeJS download file from AWS S3 Bucket

Answer 1

Server Side

const aws = require('aws-sdk');

router.get('/getfilefroms3', async (req, res, next) => {

  aws.config.update({
    secretAccessKey: config.secret_access_key,
    accessKeyId: config.access_key_id,
    signatureVersion: config.signature_version,
    region: config.region
  })

  const s3 = new aws.S3({ });

  var params = { Bucket: config.sample_bucket_name, Key: req.query.filename };

  s3.getObject(params, function (err, data) {
    if (err) {
      res.status(200);
      res.end('Error Fetching File');
    }
    else {
      res.attachment(params.Key); // Set Filename
      res.type(data.ContentType); // Set FileType
      res.send(data.Body);        // Send File Buffer
    }
  });

})

Client Side

If you are using Web Application you can use any HTTP REST API Client like Axios or Fetch, The Download Manager will capture the file.

curl --location --request GET 'http://localhost:5001/getfilefroms3?filename=sample.pdf'

If you are using NodeJS Application

var http = require('http');
var fs = require('fs');

var download = function (url, destination, callback) {
    var file = fs.createWriteStream(destination);
    http.get(url, function (response) {
        response.pipe(file);
        file.on('finish', function () {
            file.close(callback);
        });
    });
}

var fileToDownload = "sample.pdf"

download("http://localhost:5001/getfilefroms3?filename=" + fileToDownload, "./" + file