node.js. Problems saving requested zip file to disk - node.js

Question

I'm having trouble saving a remote zip file to disk with with node.
I'm using request library to make requests. I want to request a zip file,
if the request is succesful write it to disk. I can't get a good combination of
correct error handling and writing the file.
I want to do the following :
request.get('https://example.com/example.zip', {
'auth': { 'bearer': accessToken },
}, function(error, response, body) {
// shortcircuit with notification if unsuccessful request
if (error) { return handleError() }
// I want to save to file only if no errors
// obviously this doesn't work because body is not a stream
// but this is where I want to handle it.
body.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('./output.zip'));
});
I know I can pipe the request directly as follows but I can't get decent error handling. The on error callback doesn't fire for 404s, and if I catch the request and throw an error if !response.ok the empty output file is still written to disk
request.get('https://example.com/example.zip', {
'auth': { 'bearer': accessToken },
})
.on('error', handleError)
.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('./output.zip'));

Answer 1

Instead of using body.pipe(), use response.pipe().
request.get('https://example.com/example.zip', {
auth: {
bearer: accessToken
}
}, (err, res, body) => {
if (res.statusCode !== 200) { // really should check 2xx instead
return handleError();
}
res.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('./output.zip');
});
The downside here though is that the request module is going to buffer the full response. Easy fix... don't use the request module. http.get() is fine and is a drop-in replacement.
Also, I highly recommend checking out the request-promise module which has an option for failing on 404.