Open links made by createObjectURL in IE11

Question

Why can't you open the link in the following demo:
http://html5-demos.appspot.com/static/a.download.html

You cannot even right click and open it in a new tab/window. Is there any setting in the browser I need to customize?

Answer 1

This demo uses Blob URL which is not supported by IE due to security restrictions.

IE has its own API for creating and downloading files, which is called msSaveOrOpenBlob.

Here is my cross-browser solution that works on IE, Chrome and Firefox:

function createDownloadLink(anchorSelector, str, fileName){
    if(window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
        var fileData = [str];
        blobObject = new Blob(fileData);
        $(anchorSelector).click(function(){
            window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blobObject, fileName);
            window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blobObject, fileName);
        });
    } else {
        var url = "data:text/plain;charset=utf-8," + encodeURIComponent(str);
        $(anchorSelector).attr("download", fileName);
        $(anchorSelector).attr("href", url);
    }
}

$(function () {
    var str = "hi,file";
    createDownloadLink("#export", str, "file.txt");
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<a id="export" class="myButton" download="" href="#">export</a>