Getting binary content in node.js with http.request

Question

I would like to retrieve binary data from an https request.

I found a similar question that uses the request method, Getting binary content in Node

Answer 1

Running on NodeJS 6.10(and 8.10, tested in Feb 2019) in the AWS Lambda environment, none of the solutions above worker for me.

What did work for me was the following:

https.get(opt, (res) => {
    res.setEncoding('binary');
    let chunks = [];

    res.on('data', (chunk) => {
        chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk, 'binary'));
    });

    res.on('end', () => {
        let binary = Buffer.concat(chunks);
        // binary is now a Buffer that can be used as Uint8Array or as
        // any other TypedArray for data processing in NodeJS or 
        // passed on via the Buffer to something else.
    });
});

Take note the res.setEncoding('binary'); and Buffer.from(chunk, 'binary') lines. One sets the response encoding and the other creates a Buffer object from the string provided in the encoding specified previously.