why my axios request is returning a blank pdf?

Question

I wrote a function to do a GET request that retrieves a pdf file as the response, so i call the getshippinglabel function, and then base64 encode the answer and save it to a .txt file, the problem is that when i try to decode my .txt all i got is a blank pdf

This is the code block where i call my function and send it to the base64 txt

   shippingLabelPdf = await getShippingLabel( shippingId, Token);


           shippingLabel = Buffer.from(shippingLabelPdf).toString("base64");
            fs.writeFile('./guia.txt', shippingLabelPdf, err => {
              if (err) {
               console.error(err);
               }
             
            });

and this is the function itself

async function getShippingLabel(shippingId, Token){

  let axiosConfig = {
    method:'get',
    maxBodyLength: Infinity,
    headers: {
        'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + Token,
        "Content-Type": "application/pdf"
        }, params: { 
          "shipment_ids": shippingId,
         "responseType":"arraybuffer",
        }
  }; 

  var meliUrl = "https://api.mercadolibre.com/shipment_labels";


  return axios(meliUrl, axiosConfig).then(response => response.data).catch(function (error) { console.log( error.response.data)})

}

i have been refering to this question and this article

meaning that i have used: encode:'binary/null' responseType:'blob/arraybuffer' but any combination works at all

are you sue you want to set the **request** content type to `application/pdf` — Jaromanda X, Mar 22 '23 at 03:00
@JaromandaX , so wich content type should i use? do i will also need to modify my responseType? — Miguel Castillo B, Mar 22 '23 at 18:09
it's probably NOT the issue, but, what content type are you sending in the request? hint, what content are you sending in the request body? — Jaromanda X, Mar 22 '23 at 22:01
im not sending any body in the request, because is a GET, if thats what you mean, — Miguel Castillo B, Mar 22 '23 at 22:36
yes, so why sent a content-type in the request - but as I said, that's probably not the issue, but without access to the API you're using, I can't check — Jaromanda X, Mar 22 '23 at 23:21

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 26 '23 at 16:44

You should try to move your response to blob and encode to null, so this way Buffer could take correctly the parameter and correctly encode it

async function getShippingLabel(shippingId, Token) {
  let axiosConfig = {
    method:'get',
    maxBodyLength: Infinity,
    headers: {
      'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + Token,
      "Content-Type": "application/pdf"
    }, params: { 
      "shipment_ids": shippingId,
      "responseType":"blob",
      "encode":"null"
    }
  }; 

  var meliUrl = "https://api.mercadolibre.com/shipment_labels";

  return axios(meliUrl, axiosConfig).then(response => response.data).catch(function (error) { console.log( error.response.data)})
}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 29 '23 at 15:59

Your resonseType is correct but it is placed inside the params when it should be outside.

async function getShippingLabel(shippingId, Token){
  let axiosConfig = {
    method:'get',
    maxBodyLength: Infinity,
    headers: {
        'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + Token,
        "Content-Type": "application/pdf"
        }, 
    params: { 
          "shipment_ids": shippingId,
        },
    responseType: "arraybuffer",
  }; 

  var meliUrl = "https://api.mercadolibre.com/shipment_labels";


  return axios(meliUrl, axiosConfig).then(response => response.data).catch(function (error) { console.log( error.response.data)})

}

why my axios request is returning a blank pdf?

2 Answers2