How to Use Content-disposition for force a file to download to the hard drive?

html download httpresponse content-disposition
Krish picture Krish · Feb 8, 2012 · Viewed 125.5k times · Source

I want to force the browser to download a pdf file.

I am using the following code :

<a href="../doc/quot.pdf" target=_blank>Click here to Download quotation</a>

It makes the browser open the pdf in a new window, but I want it to download to the hard drive when a user clicks it.

I found that Content-disposition is used for this, but how do I use it in my case?

Answer

Oded picture Oded · Feb 8, 2012

On the HTTP Response where you are returning the PDF file, ensure the content disposition header looks like:

Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=quot.pdf;

See content-disposition on the wikipedia MIME page.

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