I have an issue where I have saved a small pdf file (~128KB) that is created in my Node.js server backend using Express to a document in Mongodb. I didn't use the Mongo GridFS because the files will always be under the 16MB limit. The collection has a schema of the following:
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const Schema = mongoose.Schema;
const ReportsSchema = new Schema({
ReportFileData: Buffer,
Cert_objid: { type: Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: 'Certs' },
Report_Type: String,
Note: String,
Dau_objID: { type: Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: 'Dau' },
Pau_objID: { type: Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: 'Pau' }
});
module.exports = Reports = mongoose.model('Reports', ReportsSchema);
I use the following code to create the pdf file and save it. I didn't include the docDefinition as it's producing the correct file if it's saved directly to the server.
const PdfPrinter = require('pdfmake/src/printer');
const path = require('path');
const moment = require('moment');
const Reports = require('../../models/Reports'); // Mongoose Schema
const createFAReport = data => {
docDefinition...
createPdfBinary(docDefinition, binary => {
const rpt = new Reports({
ReportFileData: binary,
Cert_objid: data._id,
Report_Type: 'Water Use Report',
Note: 'Testing 123'
});
rpt.save(err => {
if (err) throw err;
});
});
const createPdfBinary = (pdfDoc, callback) => {
const fonts = {
Roboto: {
normal: path.join(__dirname, '../../', '/fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf'),
bold: path.join(__dirname, '../../', '/fonts/Roboto-Medium.ttf'),
italics: path.join(__dirname, '../../', '/fonts/Roboto-Italic.ttf'),
bolditalics: path.join(__dirname, '../../', '/fonts/Roboto-MediumItalic.ttf')
}
};
const printer = new PdfPrinter(fonts);
const doc = printer.createPdfKitDocument(pdfDoc);
const chunks = [];
let result;
doc.on('data', function(chunk) {
chunks.push(chunk);
});
doc.on('end', function() {
result = Buffer.concat(chunks);
callback('data:application/pdf;base64,' + result.toString('base64'));
});
doc.end();
};
To then retrieve the encoded document from MongoDB and write it to a local file for testing I used the following code (please note that the aggregate is to get some associated fields required to retrieve the correct report):
router.get('/getReport', passport.authenticate('jwt', { session: false }), (req, res) => {
Certs.aggregate([
{
$match: {
Cert_ID: '1578'
}
},
{
$lookup: {
from: 'reports',
localField: '_id',
foreignField: 'Cert_objid',
as: 'rpt'
}
},
{
$unwind: {
path: '$rpt',
includeArrayIndex: '<<string>>',
preserveNullAndEmptyArrays: false
}
}
]).then(result => {
result.map(rslt => {
console.log(rslt.Cert_ID);
res.json({ msg: 'Got the report.' });
const fullfilePath = path.join(__dirname, '../../', '/public/pdffiles/', `1578.pdf`
);
fs.writeFile(fullfilePath, rslt.rpt.ReportFileData, 'base64', () => {
console.log('File Saved.');
});
});
});
});
Everything seems to work fine, except when I open the file I get an error that the file corrupted. I'm wondering if saving it to "base64" is a problem or is the datatype for MongoDB a problem. The data type is buffer so would you retrieve it as a buffer instead? Any help would be appreciated.
I wouldn't recomend writing pdfs or images directly to a database. Here is some info on why Storing Images in DB - Yea or Nay?
You typically save a filename and store the file on a filesystem, either your own or a more scalable option would be something like S3.
Here is a module that might help you https://www.npmjs.com/package/formidable and if you plan on rolling your own you can still get some inspiration from it.