Handle file download from ajax post

Question

I have a javascript app that sends ajax POST requests to a certain URL. Response might be a JSON string or it might be a file (as an attachment). I can easily detect Content

Answer 1

Here is my solution, gathered from different sources: Server side implementation :

    String contentType = MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM_VALUE;
    // Set headers
    response.setHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename =" + fileName);
    response.setContentType(contentType);
    // Copy file to output stream
    ServletOutputStream servletOutputStream = response.getOutputStream();
    try (InputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(file)) {
        IOUtils.copy(inputStream, servletOutputStream);
    } finally {
        servletOutputStream.flush();
        Utils.closeQuitely(servletOutputStream);
        fileToDownload = null;
    }

Client side implementation (using jquery):

$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
contentType: 'application/json',
    url: ,
    data: JSON.stringify(postObject),
    error: function(XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        alert(errorThrown);
    },
    success: function(message, textStatus, response) {
       var header = response.getResponseHeader('Content-Disposition');
       var fileName = header.split("=")[1];
       var blob = new Blob([message]);
       var link = document.createElement('a');
       link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
       link.download = fileName;
       link.click();
    }
});