How to disable Express BodyParser for file uploads

Question

This seems like it should be a fairly simple question, but I'm having a really hard time figuring out how to approach it.

I'm using Node.js + Express to build a web application, and I find the connect BodyParser that express exposes to be very useful in most cases. However, I would like to have more granular access to multipart form-data POSTS as they come - I need to pipe the input stream to another server, and want to avoid downloading the whole file first.

Because I'm using the Express BodyParser, however, all file uploads are parsed automatically and uploaded and available using "request.files" before they ever get to any of my functions.

Is there a way for me to disable the BodyParser for multipart formdata posts without disabling it for everything else?

Answer 1

If the need for body parsing depends only on the route itself, the simplest thing is to use bodyParser as a route middleware function on only the routes that need it rather than using it app-wide:

var express=require('express');
var app=express.createServer();
app.post('/body', express.bodyParser(), function(req, res) {
    res.send(typeof(req.body), {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
});
app.post('/nobody', function(req, res) {
    res.send(typeof(req.body), {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
});
app.listen(2484);