How to export to CSV?

Question

I want to be able to allow an object to be download as a CSV file. I've converted the object into an suitable format for a CSV but I am having trouble with actually getting it to download. I have tried:

window.open("data:text/csv;charset=utf-8,"+ escape(csvObj));

but I keep getting window is not defined as an error and my work colleague told me it is a bad way of doing it.

this is what I have so far

'Export to CSV': function(msg, done){
 var array = [
    msg.data.title, 
    msg.data.description, 
    msg.data.objectives, 
    msg.data.outcome, 
    msg.data.hours
 ];
        var str = '';

        for(var i=0; i<array.length; i++){
            var line = '';

            for(var index in array[i]){
                line += array[i][index]+',';
            }
            line.slice(0,line.length-1);
            str += line+ '\r\n';
        }
        console.log('**************');
        console.log(str);

        var csvData="data:text/csv;charset=utf-8," + escape(str);
}

as it's part of a workflow it drops through to this function when the user selects the export to csv option so all I really want to do is download csvData now...any ideas on how to do this?

possible duplicate of [Download File Using Javascript/jQuery](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3749231/download-file-using-javascript-jquery) — Noy, Aug 14 '14 at 12:38
If `window` is not defined, then you are either masking it (no sign of that in your code) or you aren't running the JS in a browser. What is your JS environment? Node.js? — Quentin, Aug 14 '14 at 12:43
this is what I et when I console log `str` the below is just random data I entered in my form `hds,hfs,hsg,shgf,1` — BenYeomans, Aug 14 '14 at 12:45
Check out this here... http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4639372/export-to-csv-in-jquery — Kolors, Aug 14 '14 at 12:48

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 14 '14 at 20:07

Here is a minimal example of how to serve textual data as a CSV file in Node.js:

// Load the HTTP module
var http = require('http');

// Create a server that will send some data as a CSV file
var server = http.createServer(function (request, response) {

    // Send the appropriate HTTP headers
    response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/csv", 
        "Content-disposition": "attachment;filename=foobar.csv"});

    // Send the actual data
    response.end("Foo,42,xxx\nBar,43,yyy\nBaz,44,zzz");
});

// Listen on HTTP port 8000
server.listen(8000);

Note that text/csv is the standard MIME-type for CSV file but if your clients use old version of Internet Explorer you may have to resort to non-standard MIME types such as application/vnd.ms-excel. In your server function the user-agent string will be in request.headers['user-agent'].

How to export to CSV?

1 Answers1