How to download file using jquery?

Question

I have to download a file (pdf/zip/txt ...) using jquery.

What i tried ??

<a href="abc.pdf">click</a>

When i click the link the file is opened in browser.

using jquery...

$('a').click(function(e)
{
e.preventDefault();
var link = $(this).attr('href');
window.location = link;
});

This also leads to open the file in browser. But i want to download it not display in browser.

In PHP we can use header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="test.mp3"');

But i have to use only jquery/javascript..

This `$(a).click(function(e)` should be like this `$('a').click(function(e)`. And at the first place, why are you preventing the original behavior and doing the prevented behavior manually..? — Rajaprabhu Aravindasamy, Jul 02 '14 at 05:16
@RajaprabhuAravindasamy. sorry its a typo..i prevent bcoz only to try with jquery.. — Deepu Sasidharan, Jul 02 '14 at 05:24
Probably a duplicate of: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3749231/download-file-using-javascript-jquery — Retsam, Jul 02 '14 at 05:26
Their answer boils down to "you need to be able to control the MIME type of the file you're trying to download", so this won't work if you're trying to get them to download some arbitrary file from the web. — Retsam, Jul 02 '14 at 05:28

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 02 '14 at 05:22

13

You can trigger a download by using the new HTML5 download attribute.

<a href="path_to_file" download="proposed_file_name">Download</a>

path_to_file is either an absolute or relative path, proposed_file_name the filename to save to (can be blank, then defaults to the actual filename).

answered Jul 02 '14 at 05:22

jontewks

Good to know! Also see no safari support. – jontewks Jul 02 '14 at 05:28
Yes this works in Chrome and Firefox unless the file/image is sourced on a different server: Chrome 65+ and Firefox only support same-origin download links. For example I use Amazon s3 for image storage making this solution not workable. – Mark Aug 25 '20 at 14:27
While this is a useful answer, it does not answer the question, which was how to download a file using jquery. – BobbyMick Nov 16 '21 at 13:30

1 Answers1