Prompt a csv file to download as pop up using node.js and node-csv-parser (node module)

Question

Recently I have started working with node.js. While going through a requirement in one of my projects I am facing an issue where I should be able to write some data to a csv

Answer 1

Manish Kumar's answer is spot on - just wanted to include a Express 4 syntax variant to accomplish this:

function(req, res) {
  var csv = GET_CSV_DATA // Not including for example.

  res.setHeader('Content-disposition', 'attachment; filename=testing.csv');
  res.set('Content-Type', 'text/csv');
  res.status(200).send(csv);

}

Answer 2

Express-csv is a great module for writing csv contents to stream from a node.js server, which will be sent as a response to the client (and downloaded as a file). Very easy to use.

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.csv([
    ["a", "b", "c"]
  , ["d", "e", "f"]
  ]);
});

The docs: https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-csv

When you pass an object, you need to prepend the headers explicitly (if you want them). Here's my my example using npm mysql

router.route('/api/report')
    .get(function(req, res) {
            query = connection.query('select * from table where table_id=1;', function(err, rows, fields) {
                if (err) {
                    res.send(err);
                }
                var headers = {};
                for (key in rows[0]) {
                    headers[key] = key;
                }
                rows.unshift(headers);
                res.csv(rows);
            });
    });

Answer 3

Check out this answer: Nodejs send file in response

Basically, you don't have to save the file to the hard drive. Instead, try sending it directly to the response. If you're using something like Express then it would look something like this:

var csv = require('csv');
req.get('/getCsv', function (req, res) {
    csv().from(req.body).to(res);
});

Answer 4

I did it something like this :

http.createServer(function(request, response) {
    response.setHeader('Content-disposition', 'attachment; filename=testing.csv');
    response.writeHead(200, {
        'Content-Type': 'text/csv'
    });

    csv().from(data).to(response)

})
.listen(3000);

Answer 5

Following solution is for Express

Express is evolved, instead of setting attachment and content type header, directly use attachment api http://expressjs.com/4x/api.html#res.attachment

Note: attachment() don't transfer the file, it just sets filename in header.

response.attachment('testing.csv');
csv().from(data).to(response);