angelix/gridfs-stream

Easily stream files to and from MongoDB

gridfs-stream

Easily stream files to and from MongoDB GridFS.

var mongo = require('mongodb');
var Grid = require('gridfs-stream');
var gfs = Grid(db, mongo);

// streaming to gridfs
var writestream = gfs.createWriteStream({
    filename: 'my_file.txt'
});
fs.createReadStream('/some/path').pipe(writestream);

// streaming from gridfs
var readstream = gfs.createReadStream({
  filename: 'my_file.txt'
});

//error handling, e.g. file does not exist
readstream.on('error', function (err) {
  console.log('An error occurred!', err);
  throw err;
});

readstream.pipe(response);

Alternatively you could read the file using an _id. This is often a better option, since filenames don't have to be unique within the collection. e.g.

var readstream = gfs.createReadStream({
  _id: '50e03d29edfdc00d34000001'
});

Created streams are compatible with other Node streams so piping anywhere is easy.

install

npm install gridfs-stream

use

var mongo = require('mongodb');
var Grid = require('gridfs-stream');

// create or use an existing mongodb-native db instance.
// for this example we'll just create one:
var db = new mongo.Db('yourDatabaseName', new mongo.Server("127.0.0.1", 27017));

// make sure the db instance is open before passing into `Grid`
db.open(function (err) {
  if (err) return handleError(err);
  var gfs = Grid(db, mongo);

  // all set!
})

The gridfs-stream module exports a constructor that accepts an open mongodb-native db and the mongodb-native driver you are using. The db must already be opened before calling createWriteStream or createReadStream.

Now we're ready to start streaming.

createWriteStream

To stream data to GridFS we call createWriteStream passing any options.

var writestream = gfs.createWriteStream([options]);
fs.createReadStream('/some/path').pipe(writestream);

Options may contain zero or more of the following options, for more information see GridStore:

{
    _id: '50e03d29edfdc00d34000001', // a MongoDb ObjectId
    filename: 'my_file.txt', // a filename
    mode: 'w', // default value: w+, possible options: w, w+ or r, see [GridStore](http://mongodb.github.com/node-mongodb-native/api-generated/gridstore.html)

    //any other options from the GridStore may be passed too, e.g.:

    chunkSize: 1024, 
    content_type: 'plain/text', // For content_type to work properly, set "mode"-option to "w" too!
    root: 'my_collection',
    metadata: {
        ...
    }
}

The created File object is passed in the writeStreams close event.

writestream.on('close', function (file) {
  // do something with `file`
  console.log(file.filename);
});

createReadStream

To stream data out of GridFS we call createReadStream passing any options, at least an _id or filename.

var readstream = gfs.createReadStream(options);
readstream.pipe(response);

See the options of createWriteStream for more information.

removing files

Files can be removed by passing options (at least an _id or filename) to the remove() method.

gfs.remove(options, function (err) {
  if (err) return handleError(err);
  console.log('success');
});

See the options of createWriteStream for more information.

check if file exists

Check if a file exist by passing options (at least an _id or filename) to the exist() method.

gfs.exist(options, function (err, found) {
  if (err) return handleError(err);
  found ? console.log('File exists') : console.log('File does not exist');
});

See the options of createWriteStream for more information.

accessing file metadata

All file meta-data (file name, upload date, contentType, etc) are stored in a special mongodb collection separate from the actual file data. This collection can be queried directly:

  var gfs = Grid(conn.db);
  gfs.files.find({ filename: 'myImage.png' }).toArray(function (err, files) {
    if (err) ...
    console.log(files);
  })

You may optionally change the root gridfs collection as well:

  var gfs = Grid(conn.db);
  gfs.collection('myroot').find({ filename: 'myImage.png' }).toArray(function (err, files) {
    if (err) ...
    console.log(files);
  })

using with mongoose

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var Grid = require('gridfs-stream');

var conn = mongoose.createConnection(..);
conn.once('open', function () {
  var gfs = Grid(conn.db, mongoose.mongo);

  // all set!
})

You may optionally assign the driver directly to the gridfs-stream module so you don't need to pass it along each time you construct a grid:

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var Grid = require('gridfs-stream');
Grid.mongo = mongoose.mongo;

var conn = mongoose.createConnection(..);
conn.once('open', function () {
  var gfs = Grid(conn.db);

  // all set!
})

LICENSE