I am using axios for basic http requests like GET and POST, and it works well. Now I need to be able to download Excel files too. Is this possible with axios? If so does anyone have some sample code? If not, what else can I use in a React application to do the same?
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axios
My answer is a total hack- I just created a link that looks like a button and add the URL to that.
<a class="el-button"
style="color: white; background-color: #58B7FF;"
:href="<YOUR URL ENDPOINT HERE>"
:download="<FILE NAME NERE>">
<i class="fa fa-file-excel-o"></i> Excel
</a>
I'm using the excellent VueJs hence the odd anotations, however, this solution is framework agnostic. The idea would work for any HTML based design.
This Worked for me. i implemented this solution in reactJS
const requestOptions = {`enter code here`
method: 'GET',
headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
};
fetch(`${url}`, requestOptions)
.then((res) => {
return res.blob();
})
.then((blob) => {
const href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
const link = document.createElement('a');
link.href = href;
link.setAttribute('download', 'config.json'); //or any other extension
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
})
.catch((err) => {
return Promise.reject({ Error: 'Something Went Wrong', err });
})
A more general solution
axios({
url: 'http://api.dev/file-download', //your url
method: 'GET',
responseType: 'blob', // important
}).then((response) => {
const url = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([response.data]));
const link = document.createElement('a');
link.href = url;
link.setAttribute('download', 'file.pdf'); //or any other extension
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
});
Check out the quirks at https://gist.github.com/javilobo8/097c30a233786be52070986d8cdb1743
Full credits to: https://gist.github.com/javilobo8
axios.get(
'/app/export'
).then(response => {
const url = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([response]));
const link = document.createElement('a');
link.href = url;
const fileName = `${+ new Date()}.csv`// whatever your file name .
link.setAttribute('download', fileName);
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
link.remove();// you need to remove that elelment which is created before.
})
The trick is to make an invisible anchor tag in the render() and add a React ref allowing to trigger a click once we have the axios response:
class Example extends Component {
state = {
ref: React.createRef()
}
exportCSV = () => {
axios.get(
'/app/export'
).then(response => {
let blob = new Blob([response.data], {type: 'application/octet-stream'})
let ref = this.state.ref
ref.current.href = URL.createObjectURL(blob)
ref.current.download = 'data.csv'
ref.current.click()
})
}
render(){
return(
<div>
<a style={{display: 'none'}} href='empty' ref={this.state.ref}>ref</a>
<button onClick={this.exportCSV}>Export CSV</button>
</div>
)
}
}
Here is the documentation: https://reactjs.org/docs/refs-and-the-dom.html. You can find a similar idea here: https://thewebtier.com/snippets/download-files-with-axios/.
For axios POST request, the request should be something like this:
The key here is that the responseType and header fields must be in the 3rd parameter of Post. The 2nd parameter is the application parameters.
export const requestDownloadReport = (requestParams) => async dispatch => {
let response = null;
try {
response = await frontEndApi.post('createPdf', {
requestParams: requestParams,
},
{
responseType: 'arraybuffer', // important...because we need to convert it to a blob. If we don't specify this, response.data will be the raw data. It cannot be converted to blob directly.
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'Accept': 'application/pdf'
}
});
}
catch(err) {
console.log('[requestDownloadReport][ERROR]', err);
return err
}
return response;
}
It's very simple javascript code to trigger a download for the user:
window.open("<insert URL here>")
You don't want/need axios for this operation; it should be standard to just let the browser do it's thing.
Note: If you need authorisation for the download then this might not work. I'm pretty sure you can use cookies to authorise a request like this, provided it's within the same domain, but regardless, this might not work immediately in such a case.
As for whether it's possible... not with the in-built file downloading mechanism, no.
The function to make the API call with axios:
function getFileToDownload (apiUrl) {
return axios.get(apiUrl, {
responseType: 'arraybuffer',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}
})
}
Call the function and then download the excel file you get:
getFileToDownload('putApiUrlHere')
.then (response => {
const type = response.headers['content-type']
const blob = new Blob([response.data], { type: type, encoding: 'UTF-8' })
const link = document.createElement('a')
link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob)
link.download = 'file.xlsx'
link.click()
})
This is actually even more complex when you want to download files using Axios and some means of security. To prevent anyone else from spending too much time in figuring this out, let me walk you through this.
You need to do 3 things:
1. Configure your server to permit the browser to see required HTTP headers
2. Implement the server-side service, and making it advertise the correct file type for the downloaded file.
3. Implementing an Axios handler to trigger a FileDownload dialog within the browser
These steps are mostly doable - but are complicated considerably by the browser's relation to CORS. One step at a time:
When employing transport security, JavaScript executing within a browser can [by design] access only 6 of the HTTP headers actually sent by the HTTP server. If we would like the server to suggest a filename for the download, we must inform the browser that it is "OK" for JavaScript to be granted access to other headers where suggested filename would be transported.
Let us assume - for the sake of discussion - that we want the server to transmit the suggested filename within a HTTP header called X-Suggested-Filename. The HTTP server tells the browser that it is OK to expose this received custom header to the JavaScript/Axios with the following header:
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: X-Suggested-Filename
The exact way to configure your HTTP server to set this header varies from product to product.
See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Access-Control-Expose-Headers for full explanation and detailed description of these standard headers.
Your server-side service implementation must now perform 2 things:
1. Create the (binary) document and assign correct ContentType to the response
2. Assign the custom header (X-Suggested-Filename) containing the suggested file name for the client
This is done in different ways depending on your chosen technology stack. I will sketch an example using the JavaEE 7 standard which should emit an Excel report:
@GET
@Path("/report/excel")
@Produces("application/vnd.ms-excel")
public Response getAllergyAndPreferencesReport() {
// Create the document which should be downloaded
final byte[] theDocumentData = ....
// Define a suggested filename
final String filename = ...
// Create the JAXRS response
// Don't forget to include the filename in 2 HTTP headers:
//
// a) The standard 'Content-Disposition' one, and
// b) The custom 'X-Suggested-Filename'
//
final Response.ResponseBuilder builder = Response.ok(
theDocumentData, "application/vnd.ms-excel")
.header("X-Suggested-Filename", fileName);
builder.header("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + fileName);
// All Done.
return builder.build();
}
The service now emits the binary document (an Excel report, in this case), sets the correct content type - and also sends a custom HTTP header containing the suggested filename to use when saving the document.
There are a few pitfalls here, so let's ensure all details are correctly configured:
The skeleton Axios implementation would then be something along the lines of:
// Fetch the dynamically generated excel document from the server.
axios.get(resource, {responseType: 'blob'}).then((response) => {
// Log somewhat to show that the browser actually exposes the custom HTTP header
const fileNameHeader = "x-suggested-filename";
const suggestedFileName = response.headers[fileNameHeader];'
const effectiveFileName = (suggestedFileName === undefined
? "allergierOchPreferenser.xls"
: suggestedFileName);
console.log("Received header [" + fileNameHeader + "]: " + suggestedFileName
+ ", effective fileName: " + effectiveFileName);
// Let the user save the file.
FileSaver.saveAs(response.data, effectiveFileName);
}).catch((response) => {
console.error("Could not Download the Excel report from the backend.", response);
});
Axios.post solution with IE and other browsers
I've found some incredible solutions here. But they frequently don't take into account problems with IE browser. Maybe it will save some time to somebody else.
axios.post("/yourUrl"
, data,
{responseType: 'blob'}
).then(function (response) {
let fileName = response.headers["content-disposition"].split("filename=")[1];
if (window.navigator && window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) { // IE variant
window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(new Blob([response.data], {type: 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet'}),
fileName);
} else {
const url = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([response.data], {type: 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet'}));
const link = document.createElement('a');
link.href = url;
link.setAttribute('download', response.headers["content-disposition"].split("filename=")[1]);
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
}
}
);
example above is for excel files, but with little changes can be applied to any format.
And on server I've done this to send an excel file.
response.contentType = "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet"
response.addHeader(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_DISPOSITION, "attachment; filename=exceptions.xlsx")
Source: Stackoverflow.com