How to download an xlsx in angular from express

Question

I am generating an xlsx file based on some user input in express. The info is submitted via a post request and I wanted to return the content of the file via res.download(...).

If I do that I get "garbage" in the data field of my ajax response.

I tried to prompt a download using this solution, but the content is still "garbage".

This is my angular controller:

$scope.generateSoldGoodsReport = function() {
        reportService.generateSoldGoodsReport({
            startDate: $scope.startDate,
            endDate: $scope.endDate
        })
        .then(function(report){
            var blob = new Blob([ report ], { type : 'application/xlsx' });
            $scope.url = (window.URL || window.webkitURL).createObjectURL( blob );
        })
    }

and here is my service:

generateSoldGoodsReport: function (dates) {
    var deferred = $q.defer()

    $http.post('/api/secure/generateSoldGoodsReport', dates)
                        .then(function(response){
                            deferred.resolve(response.data)
                        })
        return deferred.promise
    }

and here is my server side code:

sendFileResponse = function (res) {
    return function (err, fileDetails) {
        if (err)
        {
             res.json({
                 error: 1,
                 message: err.message,
                 detailed: err.errors
             })
         }
         else
         {
             res.download(fileDetails.path + '/' + fileDetails.fileName)
         }
      }
 }

Answer 1

In the end I ended up using a solution where in a post request I generated the report and when the response was sent to the client I made a get request to a predefined place where the generated report was stored. I don't like this solution because I use two requests instead of one.