As of this post, all major desktop browsers excluding Microsoft IE support the download attribute. It is likely that people who use these browsers would likely rather view the document rather than saving it to their phone. New to HTML 5. This markup is easier to understand and is supported by all modern browsers, but may not be supported by all content management systems.
If for whatever reason, you cannot add the download attribute in the case that you cannot directly edit the HTML of your web page , you can optionally compress the file using zip, and instruct the user to download the zip file. You can alternatively explain to the user that they should right click on the link and select download.
If you have no other alternatives to force the file to download, you can host it on a file hosting service such as Google Docs. Active Oldest Votes.
Improve this answer. Abouasy Abouasy 6 6 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. Used this and tested it in Chrome, Firefox and IE8. It all works! Simple and easy. I must correct myself! It does not work on IE. I tested it on a virtual machine, in which no pdf reader was installed yet. In that case the file is always downloaded. This is a good solution for people who don't want to make changes to their server config.
The download attribute was added in HTML5. Bird Bird 1, 7 7 silver badges 10 10 bronze badges. This needs to be done in the server side. You can't do this at the client side. How to do it depends on the server side language in question. NET: Response. BalusC BalusC 1.
For IIS: Put all files you want to force to download in their own folder. Add a new header with the following info: Name: content-disposition Value: attachment All files in that folder, when accessed, should prompt the save as dialog box for the appropriate browser. Justin Emlay Justin Emlay 8 8 silver badges 9 9 bronze badges. Works really well and don't have to create a page specifically for forcing files to download.
Jacob Relkin Jacob Relkin k 29 29 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Alex Alex 1 1 gold badge 2 2 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges. Code Spy Code Spy 8, 4 4 gold badges 60 60 silver badges 42 42 bronze badges. Levi Hackwith Levi Hackwith 9, 15 15 gold badges 61 61 silver badges bronze badges.
The example below displays how you can force the download of multiple different files including: mov, mp3, jpg and pdf. If you are storing your files to your Amazon S3 account instead of your server then you can complete the following to ensure a force download of those files takes place.
Set the correct headers on your files in Amazon S3 in order to force the browser to download rather than opening the file. You will need to set them when uploading the files to S3. If you have your downloadable item stored in a drop-box account, there is a way to ensure this item is always forced to download when a user clicks on it.
See the example below for the correct positioning of this parameter:. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. When to Force a Download and Why If you are offering a large item, even if this is a pdf it is recommended to force this download. How to Force a File Download If you wish for all your downloadable content to be automatically saved on your visitors computer complete one of the following options depending on your developer knowledge and website needs : Option 1 to Ensure Items are Forced to Download: Zip File Zip File Example Encapsulating your downloadable items in a zip file will ensure they are forced to download.
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