Compress Files Fast: Node.js & Vue.js App Tutorial

Unlock the Power of File Compression with Node.js

Simplifying File Compression

Node.js provides a powerful module called Zlib, which makes file compression a breeze. In this article, we’ll explore how to build a compression application that allows users to upload a file, compress it, and then download the compressed version using the Zlib module.

Getting Started

To follow along, you’ll need:

• Familiarity with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (ES6+)
• VS Code or any code editor installed on your development machine
• POSTMAN installed on your development machine
• Basic knowledge of Vue and Node.js

Setting Up the Project

Let’s start by building our backend, the backbone of our application. Create a folder for the application and set up a new Node.js project by running npm init -y. Next, install the necessary packages:

• express: For setting up our server and compress route
• nodemon: To restart our server whenever we make changes to our application
• multer: A middleware for uploading files
• cors: To add headers to the proxied request

Run the following command inside the server directory: npm install express nodemon multer cors

Configuring the Server

Create an index.js file inside the server directory and require the installed packages. Then, create an instance of Express and store it in a variable. Configure CORS as middleware and require Node.js core modules like zlib. Use the Express instance to create a server that listens to port 3000.

Compressing Files

Create a route that takes in a file and returns the compressed file. Zlib provides several methods for compression, but we’ll use the gzip method. Define the /compress route, which is a POST request, and pass the Multer middleware in the route. Multer returns the file buffer, which we’ll use as input for the zlib module.

Testing the Application

Create a compressed directory to store our compressed file. Use the Multer middleware to get the name of the file we want to compress and save it in our compressed directory. Compress the file using the Zlib gzip method and store the response inside the compressed directory.

Building the User Interface

Create a client directory inside the compressor root directory and add two files: index.html and main.js. Define a simple user interface for our application using HTML 5 boilerplate, Vue.js script, Bootstrap CSS CDN, and Axios script.

Implementing Drag and Drop

Define a Vue.js instance in our main.js file and create a state to hold our files. Add a @drop event that selects our files and a v-cloak attribute to hide {{tags}} before app load. Define the addFile method to log the files dropped in the box.

Compressing Files with Axios

Define the compress function, which compresses our selected file using Axios. Make a request to our /compress route, which returns the compressed file. Use URL.createObjectURL to create a DOMstring containing a URL representing the object given. Then, download the given data received from our backend.

Formatting File Sizes

Create a Vue.js filter to format the size of our file in kilobytes. Pass a pipe to the size of the file to display a more readable format.

The Power of Node.js

Node.js has made file compression easy, and it can be further used for compressing HTTP requests and responses to increase application performance. Explore more Zlib features in the Node.js documentation.