Iron router on action using Meteor.call throws writeHead is not a function

Question

I'm trying to write a buffer which returns from server to the client response.

Therefore, I've defined a route which runs to fetch file on action function:

Router.route('/download/:blabla', {
    name: 'download',
    action: function () {
       var that = this.response;
       Meteor.call('downloadFile', blabla, function (err, result) {
           // error check etc.
           var headers = {
               'Content-type' : 'application/octet-stream',
               'Content-Disposition' : 'attachment; filename=' + fileName
           };
           that.writeHead(200, headers);
           that.end(result);
        }
    }
});

This throws:

Exception in delivering result of invoking 'downloadFile': TypeError: that.writeHead is not a function

Without Metoer.call it works...

I'm using nodejs stream to fetch buffer on server side function and it works.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Have you tried using a server side only route in IR? i.e. make the route accessible on the server only with `{where:"server"}' to avoid having to do a method call as per example below from here (note serving the file int his example requires the addition of the meteorhacks:npm package as per comments but you might be able to avoid this...):

Router.route("/file/:fileName", function() {
  var fileName = this.params.fileName;

  // Read from a file (requires 'meteor add meteorhacks:npm')
  var filePath = "/path/to/pdf/store/" + fileName;
  var fs = Meteor.npmRequire('fs');
  var data = fs.readFileSync(filePath);

  this.response.writeHead(200, {
    "Content-Type": "application/pdf",
    "Content-Length": data.length
  });
  this.response.write(data);
  this.response.end();
}, {
  where: "server"
});