Stream file directly to client

[deathg0d]

Is there a way to stream file directly to client without saving it in the server? I have also posted a question on this issue here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26312294/streaming-files-directly-to-client-from-amazon-s3-node-js

I have pasted the question below:

---

I am using sails.js and am trying to stream files from the Amazon s3 server directly to the client.

To connect to S3, I use the s3 Module : https://www.npmjs.org/package/s3 This module provides capabilities like client.downloadFile(params) and client.downloadBuffer(s3Params).

My current code looks like the following:

var view = client.downloadBuffer(params);
view.on('error', function(err) {
    cb({success: 0, message: 'Could not open file.'}, null);
});
view.on('end', function(buffer) {
    cb(null, buffer);
});

I catch this buffer in a controller using:

User.showImage( params , function (err, buffer){
    // this is where I can get the buffer
});

Is it possible to stream this data as an image file (using buffer.pipe(res) doesn't work of course). But is there something similar to completely avoid saving file to server disk first?

The other option client.downloadFile(params) requires a local path (i.e. a server path in our case)

[andrewrk]

I suggest using the aws SDK directly. I don't think there would be a benefit to adding downloadStream to this module. The aws SDK already supports downloading a stream.

[deathg0d]

Hi, @andrewrk, I used your client.downloadBuffer and plugged the output buffer directly into my sails app like this return res.end(buffer);. It does seem to work. However, I am struggling with maintaining cache on images.

The aws SDK already supports downloading a stream. >> yes but don't want to use too many modules to do similar things. My code is already a big pile of mess :|

[andrewrk]

I advise against using downloadBuffer for this use case. You should use a stream. Would it help if this module exposed the aws-sdk dependency?

[deathg0d]

@andrewrk I would assume it would be quite handy to have the feature to directly stream files to the client.

[andrewrk]

Alright. I'll add downloadStream even though it's really a superfluous wrapper around aws sdk. I can see how it would be nice to only have 1 set of documentation to read.

[deathg0d]

Thanks that would be great. I really appreciate your work on this module. Thanks.

[deathg0d]

@andrewrk Any updates on this addition?

[andrewrk]

Not yet.

[deathg0d]

Thanks for adding this. Is this update going to npm any time soon?

[andrewrk]

Yeah. There are a few other issues I want to solve with this release though. I observed some weird behavior in master branch and I want to figure out what it was before releasing.

[andrewrk]

Sorry for the delay.