How do I create a file in express and node on my server and then download it to my client. I am using NextJS for my frontend and backend

[landonwjohnson]

How do I create a file in express and node on my server and then download it to my client. I am using NextJS for my frontend and backend. I am confused on how I would download the file on the front end after the file is created on the root of the server folder. Since I am using React for my frontend whenever I try to visit that filepath it tries to take me to a page instead of the file

Here is what I have in my express route in node

  var xls = json2xls(json, {
    fields
  });

  // If there isn't a folder called /temp in the
  // root folder it creates one
  if (!fs.existsSync('./temp')) {
    fs.mkdirSync('./temp');
  }

  const fileName = `temp/${req.user.first_name}${req.body._id + Date.now()}.xlsx`

  // fs.writeFileSync(fileName, xls, 'binary');

  fs.writeFile(fileName, xls, 'binary', function (err, result) {
    if (err) {
      return console.log(err);
    }



    console.log(result, 'this is result')
  });

Here is my front end in react

axios.post('api/download',payload)
  .then(res => {
    const link = document.createElement('a');
    link.href = res.data.url;
    link.download
    document.body.appendChild(link);
    link.click();
    document.body.removeChild(link);
  })
  .catch(err => {
    throw err
  })```