How to set a file name using window.open

Question

I'am trying to download temporary result calculated by JavaScript. Say I have a string str, I want to download a file contains str and named it as data.csv, I'm using the following code:

window.open('data:text/csv;charset=utf-8,' + str);

The file can be successfully downloaded, but how can I name the file data.csv automatically rather than set the name by hand each time?

Answer 1

You can achieve this using the download attribute for <a> elements. For example:

<a href="1251354216241621.txt" download="your-foo.txt">Download Your Foo</a>

This attribute indicates that the file should be downloaded (instead of displayed, if applicable) and specifies which filename should be used for the downloaded file.

Instead of using window.open() you could generate an invisible link with the download attribute and .click() it.

var str = "Name, Price\nApple, 2\nOrange, 3";
var uri = 'data:text/csv;charset=utf-8,' + str;

var downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
downloadLink.href = uri;
downloadLink.download = "data.csv";

document.body.appendChild(downloadLink);
downloadLink.click();
document.body.removeChild(downloadLink);

Unfortunately this isn't supported in all browsers, but adding it won't make things worse for other browsers: they'll continue to download the files with useless filenames. (This assumes that you're using a MIME type is that their browser attempts to download. If you're trying to let the user download an .html file instead of displaying it, this won't do you any good in unsupported browsers.)

Answer 2

That does not work in latest Chrome, I have modified that and the following code will work fine,

 $("#download_1").on('click', function() {
    var json_pre = '[{"Id":1,"UserName":"Sam Smith"},{"Id":2,"UserName":"Fred Frankly"},{"Id":1,"UserName":"Zachary Zupers"}]';
    var json = $.parseJSON(json_pre);
   
    var csv = JSON2CSV(json);
    var downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
    var blob = new Blob(["\ufeff", csv]);
    var url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
    downloadLink.href = url;
    downloadLink.download = "data.csv";

    document.body.appendChild(downloadLink);
    downloadLink.click();
    document.body.removeChild(downloadLink);
});

So when you click on download_1 id button then it will create an invisible download link and click that. I have used another function to prepare js.

The JSON2CSV function is as follows:

function JSON2CSV(objArray) {
    var array = typeof objArray != 'object' ? JSON.parse(objArray) : objArray;
    var str = '';
    var line = '';

    for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
        var line = '';

        for (var index in array[i]) {
           line += array[i][index] + ',';
        }

        line = line.slice(0, -1);
        str += line + '\r\n';
    }
    return str;
}

Hope it will help others :)

Answer 3

A shorter version of accepted one (for my case had to use unicode)

var link = document.createElement("a");
link.href = 'data:text/csv,' + encodeURIComponent("algún texto");
link.download = "Example.csv";
link.click();

Answer 4

A solution for IE is to use msSaveBlob and pass the file name.

For modern browsers solution goes like this, tested: IE11, FF & Chrome

 var csvData = new Blob([arg.data], {type: 'text/csv;charset=utf-8;'});
        //IE11 & Edge
        if (navigator.msSaveBlob) {
            navigator.msSaveBlob(csvData, exportFilename);
        } else {
            //In FF link must be added to DOM to be clicked
            var link = document.createElement('a');
            link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(csvData);
            link.setAttribute('download', exportFilename);
            document.body.appendChild(link);    
            link.click();
            document.body.removeChild(link);    
        }

There is a good discution about that here