I'm hacking on a Node program that uses smtp-protocol to capture SMTP emails and act on the mail data. The library provides the mail data as a stream, and I don't know how to get that into a string.
I'm currently writing it to stdout with stream.pipe(process.stdout, { end: false }), but as I said, I need the stream data in a string instead, which I can use once the stream has ended.
How do I collect all the data from a Node.js stream into a string?
Another way would be to convert the stream to a promise (refer to the example below) and use then (or await) to assign the resolved value to a variable.
function streamToString (stream) {
const chunks = [];
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
stream.on('data', (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)));
stream.on('error', (err) => reject(err));
stream.on('end', () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString('utf8')));
})
}
const result = await streamToString(stream)
What do you think about this ?
async function streamToString(stream) {
// lets have a ReadableStream as a stream variable
const chunks = [];
for await (const chunk of stream) {
chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk));
}
return Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf-8");
}
None of the above worked for me. I needed to use the Buffer object:
const chunks = [];
readStream.on("data", function (chunk) {
chunks.push(chunk);
});
// Send the buffer or you can put it into a var
readStream.on("end", function () {
res.send(Buffer.concat(chunks));
});
Hope this is more useful than the above answer:
var string = '';
stream.on('data',function(data){
string += data.toString();
console.log('stream data ' + part);
});
stream.on('end',function(){
console.log('final output ' + string);
});
Note that string concatenation is not the most efficient way to collect the string parts, but it is used for simplicity (and perhaps your code does not care about efficiency).
Also, this code may produce unpredictable failures for non-ASCII text (it assumes that every character fits in a byte), but perhaps you do not care about that, either.
(This answer is from years ago, when it was the best answer. There is now a better answer below this. I haven't kept up with node.js, and I cannot delete this answer because it is marked "correct on this question". If you are thinking of down clicking, what do you want me to do?)
The key is to use the data and end events of a Readable Stream. Listen to these events:
stream.on('data', (chunk) => { ... });
stream.on('end', () => { ... });
When you receive the data event, add the new chunk of data to a Buffer created to collect the data.
When you receive the end event, convert the completed Buffer into a string, if necessary. Then do what you need to do with it.
I'm using usually this simple function to transform a stream into a string:
function streamToString(stream, cb) {
const chunks = [];
stream.on('data', (chunk) => {
chunks.push(chunk.toString());
});
stream.on('end', () => {
cb(chunks.join(''));
});
}
Usage example:
let stream = fs.createReadStream('./myFile.foo');
streamToString(stream, (data) => {
console.log(data); // data is now my string variable
});
And yet another one for strings using promises:
function getStream(stream) {
return new Promise(resolve => {
const chunks = [];
# Buffer.from is required if chunk is a String, see comments
stream.on("data", chunk => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)));
stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString()));
});
}
Usage:
const stream = fs.createReadStream(__filename);
getStream(stream).then(r=>console.log(r));
remove the .toString() to use with binary Data if required.
update: #AndreiLED correctly pointed out this has problems with strings. I couldn't get a stream returning strings with the version of node I have, but the api notes this is possible.
From the nodejs documentation you should do this - always remember a string without knowing the encoding is just a bunch of bytes:
var readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
readable.setEncoding('utf8');
readable.on('data', function(chunk) {
assert.equal(typeof chunk, 'string');
console.log('got %d characters of string data', chunk.length);
})
Easy way with the popular (over 5m weekly downloads) and lightweight get-stream library:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/get-stream
const fs = require('fs');
const getStream = require('get-stream');
(async () => {
const stream = fs.createReadStream('unicorn.txt');
console.log(await getStream(stream)); //output is string
})();
Streams don't have a simple .toString() function (which I understand) nor something like a .toStringAsync(cb) function (which I don't understand).
So I created my own helper function:
var streamToString = function(stream, callback) {
var str = '';
stream.on('data', function(chunk) {
str += chunk;
});
stream.on('end', function() {
callback(str);
});
}
// how to use:
streamToString(myStream, function(myStr) {
console.log(myStr);
});
I had more luck using like that :
let string = '';
readstream
.on('data', (buf) => string += buf.toString())
.on('end', () => console.log(string));
I use node v9.11.1 and the readstream is the response from a http.get callback.
The cleanest solution may be to use the "string-stream" package, which converts a stream to a string with a promise.
const streamString = require('stream-string')
streamString(myStream).then(string_variable => {
// myStream was converted to a string, and that string is stored in string_variable
console.log(string_variable)
}).catch(err => {
// myStream emitted an error event (err), so the promise from stream-string was rejected
throw err
})
What about something like a stream reducer ?
Here is an example using ES6 classes how to use one.
var stream = require('stream')
class StreamReducer extends stream.Writable {
constructor(chunkReducer, initialvalue, cb) {
super();
this.reducer = chunkReducer;
this.accumulator = initialvalue;
this.cb = cb;
}
_write(chunk, enc, next) {
this.accumulator = this.reducer(this.accumulator, chunk);
next();
}
end() {
this.cb(null, this.accumulator)
}
}
// just a test stream
class EmitterStream extends stream.Readable {
constructor(chunks) {
super();
this.chunks = chunks;
}
_read() {
this.chunks.forEach(function (chunk) {
this.push(chunk);
}.bind(this));
this.push(null);
}
}
// just transform the strings into buffer as we would get from fs stream or http request stream
(new EmitterStream(
["hello ", "world !"]
.map(function(str) {
return Buffer.from(str, 'utf8');
})
)).pipe(new StreamReducer(
function (acc, v) {
acc.push(v);
return acc;
},
[],
function(err, chunks) {
console.log(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString('utf8'));
})
);
All the answers listed appear to open the Readable Stream in flowing mode which is not the default in NodeJS and can have limitations since it lacks backpressure support that NodeJS provides in Paused Readable Stream Mode.
Here is an implementation using Just Buffers, Native Stream and Native Stream Transforms and support for Object Mode
import {Transform} from 'stream';
let buffer =null;
function objectifyStream() {
return new Transform({
objectMode: true,
transform: function(chunk, encoding, next) {
if (!buffer) {
buffer = Buffer.from([...chunk]);
} else {
buffer = Buffer.from([...buffer, ...chunk]);
}
next(null, buffer);
}
});
}
process.stdin.pipe(objectifyStream()).process.stdout
This worked for me and is based on Node v6.7.0 docs:
let output = '';
stream.on('readable', function() {
let read = stream.read();
if (read !== null) {
// New stream data is available
output += read.toString();
} else {
// Stream is now finished when read is null.
// You can callback here e.g.:
callback(null, output);
}
});
stream.on('error', function(err) {
callback(err, null);
})
Using the quite popular stream-buffers package which you probably already have in your project dependencies, this is pretty straightforward:
// imports
const { WritableStreamBuffer } = require('stream-buffers');
const { promisify } = require('util');
const { createReadStream } = require('fs');
const pipeline = promisify(require('stream').pipeline);
// sample stream
let stream = createReadStream('/etc/hosts');
// pipeline the stream into a buffer, and print the contents when done
let buf = new WritableStreamBuffer();
pipeline(stream, buf).then(() => console.log(buf.getContents().toString()));
setEncoding('utf8');
Well done Sebastian J above.
I had the "buffer problem" with a few lines of test code I had, and added the encoding information and it solved it, see below.
Demonstrate the problem
software
// process.stdin.setEncoding('utf8');
process.stdin.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(typeof(data), data);
});
input
hello world
output
object <Buffer 68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64 0d 0a>
Demonstrate the solution
software
process.stdin.setEncoding('utf8'); // <- Activate!
process.stdin.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(typeof(data), data);
});
input
hello world
output
string hello world
In my case, the content type response headers was Content-Type: text/plain. So, I've read the data from Buffer like:
let data = [];
stream.on('data', (chunk) => {
console.log(Buffer.from(chunk).toString())
data.push(Buffer.from(chunk).toString())
});
If I query the box REST API and get back a readable stream, what is the best way to handle it? How do you send it to the browser?? (DISCLAIMER: I'm new to streams and buffers, so some of this code is pretty theoretical)
Can you pass the readStream in the response and let the browser handle it? Or do you have to stream the chunks into a buffer and then send the buffer??
export function getFileStream(req, res) {
const fileId = req.params.fileId;
console.log('fileId', fileId);
req.sdk.files.getReadStream(fileId, null, (err, stream) => {
if (err) {
console.log('error', err);
return res.status(500).send(err);
}
res.type('application/octet-stream');
console.log('stream', stream);
return res.status(200).send(stream);
});
}
Will ^^ work, or do you need to do something like:
export function downloadFile(req, res) {
const fileId = req.params.fileId;
console.log('fileId', fileId);
req.sdk.files.getReadStream(fileId, null, (err, stream) => {
if (err) {
console.log('error', err);
return res.status(500).send(err);
}
const buffers = [];
const document = new Buffer();
console.log('stream', stream);
stream.on('data', (chunk) => {
buffers.push(buffer);
})
.on('end', function(){
const finalBuffer = Buffer.concat(buffers);
return res.status(200).send(finalBuffer);
});
});
}
The first example would work if you changed you theoretical line to:
- return res.status(200).send(stream);
+ res.writeHead(200, {header: here})
+ stream.pipe(res);
That's the nicest thing about node stream. The other case would (in essence) work too, but it would accumulate lots of unnecessary memory.
If you'd like to check a working example, here's one I wrote based on scramjet, express and browserify:
https://github.com/MichalCz/scramjet/blob/master/samples/browser/browser.js
Where your streams go from the server to the browser. With minor mods it'll fit your problem.
After i emit error event in MyWritableStream, data transmission stops. What i need to do to resume data transfer?
var readable = fs.createReadStream('test.txt');
var writable = new MyWritableStream();
writable.on('error', function(error) {
console.log('error', error);
// How i can resume?
});
writable.on('finish', function(){
console.log('finished');
})
readable.pipe(writable);
I know this question is old, but you might wanna check out https://github.com/miraclx/xresilient
I built this for this exact same reason (works best with seekable streams).
You define a function that returns a readable stream, the library measures the number of bytes that have passed through until an error is met.
Once the readable stream encounters an error event, it recalls the defined function with the number of bytes read so you can index the stream source.
Example:
const fs = require('fs');
const xresilient = require('xresilient');
const readable = xresilient(({bytesRead}) => {
return generateSeekableStreamSomehow({start: bytesRead});
}, {retries: 5});
const writable = fs.createWriteStream('file.test');
readable.pipe(writable);
File streams are indexable with the start option of the fs.createReadStream() function.
HTTP Requests are indexable with the Range HTTP Header.
Check it out.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/xresilient
I am not sure, if it is a normal practice, but i can't see another solution for now & it works for me. If you can advise more accurate solution, please do it.
We can track readable stream instance using pipe event in writeable one:
function WriteableStream(options) {
Writable.call(this, options);
this.source = null;
var instance = this;
this.on('pipe', function(source){
instance.source = source;
});
}
util.inherits(WriteableStream, Writable);
So, when we emit error event, and readable stream is unpiped automatically, we can re-pipe it ourself:
WriteableStream.prototype._write = function(chunk, encoding, done) {
this.emit('error', new Error('test')); // unpipes readable
done();
};
WriteableStream.prototype.resume = function() {
this.source.pipe(this); // re-pipes readable
}
Finally, we will use it the following way:
var readable = fs.createReadStream(file);
var writeable = new WriteableStream();
writeable.on('error', function(error) {
console.log('error', error);
writeable.resume();
});
readable.pipe(writeable);
I am toying around with all the fancy node.js/mongodb/express platforms, and stumbled across a problem:
app.get('/tag/:tag', function(req, res){
var tag=req.params.tag;
console.log('got tag ' + tag + '.');
catalog.byTag(tag,function(err,cursor) {
if(err) {
console.dir(err);
res.end(err);
} else {
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'application/json'});
//this crashes
cursor.stream().pipe(res);
}
});
});
As you probably guessed, catalog.byTag(tag, callback) does a find() query to Mongodb and returns the cursor
This leads to an error:
TypeError: first argument must be a string or Buffer
According to mongodb driver doc,
I tried to pass this converter to stream():
function(obj) {return JSON.stringify(obj);}
but that does not help.
Can anybody tell me how to correctly stream something to a response?
Or is the only solution a boilerplate to manually pump the data using the 'data' and 'end' events?
Use the cursor stream in combination with JSONStream to pipe it to your response object.
cursor.stream().pipe(JSONStream.stringify()).pipe(res);
A working combination of other answers here
app.get('/comments', (req, res) => {
Comment.find()
.cursor()
.pipe(JSONStream.stringify())
.pipe(res.type('json'))
})
http://mongoosejs.com/docs/api.html#query_Query-cursor
cursor() returns a Node streams3 compatible stream and is preferred over the deprecated query.stream() interface.
Piping to JSONStream.stringify() to combine documents into an array instead of single objects
Piping to res.type('json') which sets the HTTP Content-Type header to application/json and returns itself (the response stream) again.
Simple. .stream({transform: JSON.stringify});
Your mongo stream is dumping objects into the res stream which can only handle strings or buffers (hence the error).
Luckily, streams are easy to pipe together so its not too hard to make a transform stream to stringify your data.
in node v0.10.21:
var util = require('util')
var stream = require('stream')
var Transform = stream.Transform
util.inherits(Stringer, Transform)
function Stringer() {
Transform.call(this, { objectMode: true } )
// 'object mode allows us to consume one object at a time
}
Stringer.prototype._transform = function(chunk, encoding, cb) {
var pretty = JSON.stringify(chunk, null, 2)
this.push(pretty) // 'push' method sends data down the pike.
cb() // callback tells the incoming stream we're done processing
}
var ss = new Stringer()
db.createObjectStreamSomehow()
.pipe(ss)
.pipe(res)
hope that helps
Using mongoose and express:
function(req, res){
var stream = database.tracks.find({}).stream();
stream.on('data', function (doc) {
res.write(JSON.stringify(doc));
});
stream.on('end', function() {
res.end();
});
}
A better and recent solution for this problem:
const { JsonStreamStringify } = require("json-stream-stringify");
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
const cursor = db.collection("hello").find({}).limit(10).stream();
x = new JsonStreamStringify(cursor).pipe(res);
x.on("data", (doc) => {
res.write(doc);
});
});
The above solution is using https://www.npmjs.com/package/json-stream-stringify package.
How to convert stream into buffer in nodejs? Here is my code to parse a file in post request in express.
app.post('/upload', express.multipart({
defer: true
}), function(req, res) {
req.form.on('part', function(part) {
//Here I want to convert the streaming part into a buffer.
//do something buffer-specific task
var out = fs.createWriteStream('image/' + part.filename);
part.pipe(out);
});
req.form.on('close', function() {
res.send('uploaded!');
});
});
Instead of piping, you can attach readable and end event handlers to the part stream to read it:
var buffers = [];
part.on('readable', function(buffer) {
for (;;) {
let buffer = part.read();
if (!buffer) { break; }
buffers.push(buffer);
}
});
part.on('end', function() {
var buffer = Buffer.concat(buffers);
...do your stuff...
// write to file:
fs.writeFile('image/' + part.filename, buffer, function(err) {
// handle error, return response, etc...
});
});
Note: If you instead use data, it will read the entire upload into memory.
You could also create a custom transform stream to transform the incoming data, but that might not be trivial.
You can use the stream-to module, which can convert a readable stream's data into an array or a buffer:
var streamTo = require('stream-to');
req.form.on('part', function (part) {
streamTo.buffer(part, function (err, buffer) {
// Insert your business logic here
});
});
If you want a better understanding of what's happening behind the scenes, you can implement the logic yourself, using a Writable stream. As a writable stream implementor, you only have to define one function: the _write method, that will be called every time some data is written to the stream. When the input stream is finished emitting data, the end event will be emitted: we'll then create a buffer using the Buffer.concat method.
var stream = require('stream');
var converter = new stream.Writable();
// We'll store all the data inside this array
converter.data = [];
converter._write = function (chunk) {
converter.data.push(chunk);
};
// Will be emitted when the input stream has ended,
// i.e. no more data will be provided
converter.on('finish', function() {
// Create a buffer from all the received chunks
var b = Buffer.concat(this.data);
// Insert your business logic here
});