Download File Using jQuery

jquery file download
Dodinas picture Dodinas · Aug 18, 2009 · Viewed 467.4k times · Source

How can I prompt a download for a user when they click a link.

For example, instead of:

<a href="uploads/file.doc">Download Here</a>

I could use: 

<a href="#">Download Here</a>

 $('a').click... //Some jquery to download the file

This way, Google does not index my HREF's and private files.

Can this be done with jQuery, if so, how? Or should this be done with PHP or something instead?

Answer

karim79 picture karim79 · Aug 18, 2009

I might suggest this, as a more gracefully degrading solution, using preventDefault:

$('a').click(function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();  //stop the browser from following
    window.location.href = 'uploads/file.doc';
});

<a href="no-script.html">Download now!</a>

Even if there's no Javascript, at least this way the user will get some feedback.

Related questions

Get data from file input in JQuery

I actually have a file input and I would like to retrieve the Base64 data of the file. I tried: $('input#myInput')[0].files[0] to retrieve the data. But it only provides the name, the length, the content type but not …

Read More
Image convert to Base64

<input type="file" id="asd"/> I would like to get the image in base64 once the user chose that (before submitting the form) Something like : $(input).on('change',function(){ var data = $(this).val().base64file(); // it is not …

Read More
JQuery - File attributes

Trying to access file attributes from an input field after a file is selected. Tried this but get the error 'file not defined' var file = $("#uploadedfile").prop("files")[0]; var fileName = file.fileName; var fileSize = file.fileSize; alert("Uploading: "+fileName+" @ "+fileSize+"…

Read More