I would like to be able to POST to my express app with a file URL and download that file to my own server.

For example, I display a list of images that are taken from a third-party and when the user clicks download, it will send a post request to this node app with the file URL (.jpg) and download it to my server.

How would I do this? I apologize as I'm very new to node.

I would like to be able to POST to my express app with a file URL and download that file to my own server.

For example, I display a list of images that are taken from a third-party and when the user clicks download, it will send a post request to this node app with the file URL (http://example./image.jpg) and download it to my server.

How would I do this? I apologize as I'm very new to node.

• javascript
• node.js
• express

Share Improve this question Follow asked Jul 2, 2014 at 15:21 EverestEverest 60766 silver badges1313 bronze badges

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2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 3

To download a remote file from node you could save what you would get from a http GET request to that file:

    var http = require('http');
    var fs = require('fs');//Handle files
    var fileToDownload=req.body.fileToDownload;
    var file = fs.createWriteStream("externalImage.jpg");
    var request = http.get(fileToDownload, function(response) {
      response.pipe(file);
    });

Use the Formidable module to handle file uploads. It handles many tasks and features related to file upload.

npm install formidable@latest