Question

54

forcing a pdf to download when clicked on button

rated 0 times [ 60] [ 6] / answers: 1 / hits: 20196 / 12 Years ago, sat, march 2, 2013, 12:00:00

I hava a backbonejs view containing a button saying download pdf. I also have the url available where the pdf can be found. I want that when user clicks on the button, the pdf file gets downloaded. Is it possible?

EDIT: My view code in backbone.js

savendownload: function () {

  this.$(#saveanddownload).button('loading');



  var that = this;

  var formData = this.fetchData();

  if (formData) window.invoices.create({

    buyer: formData.buyer,

    items: formData.items,

    company: formData.company,

    action: savendownload

  }, {

    wait: true,

    success: function (model) {

      var data = model.toJSON();



      var filename = data.filename;

      //download code here

    }

  });

}

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brennonr

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2 Years ago

answered 12 Years ago annalise · Accepted Answer

Don't use a button, use a link and set the href attribute to the URL of your PDF file. The browser will handle the file download for you, honoring the user's browser preferences.

<a href=your/file.pdf />

If you need the link to look like a button, you can style it using CSS. See for example this SO thread.

Edit: AFAIK, you can't reliably initialize a file download from javascript. What you can do is to open a new window/tab with your pdf URL:

window.open(http://domain.com/document.pdf,'_blank');

But the user's browser can block the new window from being created. You might want to simply generate a download link:

$('<a>Click here to download PDF</a>').attr('href', filename).appendTo(that.$el);

And have the user click the link to initiate the file download.