Generated docx is empty when downloaded

Question

This is a Meteor-app. I need to generate a docx-file and download it. I am testing it by running: localhost:3000/download.

Word file is generated, but it is totally empty.

Why? I would appreciate any advice!

This is my server-side code:

const officegen = require('officegen');
const fs = require('fs');

Meteor.startup(() => {

WebApp.connectHandlers.use('/download', function(req, res, next) {

    const filename = 'test.docx';

    let docx = officegen('docx')

    // Create a new paragraph:
    let pObj = docx.createP()

    pObj.addText('Simple')
    pObj.addText(' with color', { color: '000088' })
    pObj.addText(' and back color.', { color: '00ffff', back: '000088' })

    pObj = docx.createP()

    pObj.addText(' you can do ')
    pObj.addText('more cool ', { highlight: true }) // Highlight!
    pObj.addText('stuff!', { highlight: 'darkGreen' }) // Different highlight color.

    docx.putPageBreak()

    pObj = docx.createP()

    let out = fs.createWriteStream(filename);

    res.writeHead(200, {
        'Content-Disposition': `attachment;filename=${filename}`,
        'Content-Type': 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document',
      });

    res.end(docx.generate(out));

    });
});

Answer 1

The problem you are facing is that docx.generate(out) is an async function: when calling res.end(docx.generate(out)) you end the request right now while you start generating the docx in the file test.docx . Hence the doc does not exist yet .

You should modify your code to send over the file directly like this:

res.writeHead(200, {
    'Content-Disposition': `attachment;filename=${filename}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document',
  });
docx.generate(res)

If you still need the file on the server side you can use another approach waiting for the file being generated ( see here )