Force to open “Save As…” popup open at text link click for PDF in HTML

Question

I have some big size PDF catalogs at my website, and I need to link these as download. When I googled, I found such a thing noted below. It should open the \"Save As

Answer 1

From an answer to Force a browser to save file as after clicking link:

<a href="path/to/file" download>Click here to download</a>

Answer 2

This is old post but here is the one my solution in JavaScript what using jQuery library.

<script>
(function($){
    var download = [];
    $('a.force-download, .force-download a').each(function(){
        // Collect info
        var $this = $(this),
            $href = $this.attr('href'),
            $split = $href.split('/'),
            $name = document.title.replace(/[\W_]/gi, '-').replace(/-{2,}/g, '-'); // get title and clean it for the URL

        // Get filename from URL
        if($split[($split.length-1)])
        {
            $tmp = $split[($split.length-1)];
            $tmp = $tmp.split('.');
            $name = $tmp[0].replace(/[\W_]/gi, '-').replace(/-{2,}/g, '-');
        }

        // If name already exists, put timestamp there
        if($.inArray($name, download) > -1)
        {
            $name = $name + '-' + Date.now().replace(/[\W]/gi, '-');
        }

        $(this).attr("download", $name);
        download.push($name);
    });
}(jQuery || window.jQuery))
</script>

You just need to use class force-download inside your <a> tag and will force download automaticaly. You also can add it to parent div and will pickup all links inside it.

Example:

<a href="/some/good/url/Post-Injection_Post-Surgery_Instructions.pdf" class="force-download" target="_blank">Download PDF</a>

This is great for WordPress and any other systems or custom websites.

Answer 3

I just had a very similar issue with the added problem that I needed to create download links to files inside a ZIP file.

I first tried to create a temporary file, then provided a link to the temporary file, but I found that some browsers would just display the contents (a CSV Excel file) rather than offering to download. Eventually I found the solution by using a servlet. It works both on Tomcat and GlassFish, and I tried it on Internet Explorer 10 and Chrome.

The servlet takes as input a full path name to the ZIP file, and the name of the file inside the zip that should be downloaded.

Inside my JSP file I have a table displaying all the files inside the zip, with links that say: onclick='download?zip=<%=zip%>&csv=<%=csv%>'

The servlet code is in download.java:

package myServlet;

import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import java.util.zip.*;
import java.util.*;

// Extend HttpServlet class
public class download extends HttpServlet {

    public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException
    {
        PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); // now we can write to the client

        String filename = request.getParameter("csv");
        String zipfile = request.getParameter("zip");

        String aLine = "";

        response.setContentType("application/x-download");
        response.setHeader( "Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + filename); // Force 'save-as'
        ZipFile zip = new ZipFile(zipfile);
        for (Enumeration e = zip.entries(); e.hasMoreElements();) {
            ZipEntry entry = (ZipEntry) e.nextElement();
            if(entry.toString().equals(filename)) {
                InputStream is = zip.getInputStream(entry);
                BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8"), 65536);
                while ((aLine = br.readLine()) != null) {
                    out.println(aLine);
                }
                is.close();
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

To compile on Tomcat you need the classpath to include tomcat\lib\servlet-api.jar or on GlassFish: glassfish\lib\j2ee.jar

But either one will work on both. You also need to set your servlet in web.xml.

Answer 4

Just put the below code in your .htaccess file:

AddType application/octet-stream .csv
AddType application/octet-stream .xls
AddType application/octet-stream .doc
AddType application/octet-stream .avi
AddType application/octet-stream .mpg
AddType application/octet-stream .mov
AddType application/octet-stream .pdf

Or you can also do trick by JavaScript

element.setAttribute( 'download', whatever_string_you_want);

Answer 5

I had this same issue and found a solution that has worked great so far. You put the following code in your .htaccess file:

<FilesMatch "\.(?i:pdf)$">
  ForceType application/octet-stream
  Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</FilesMatch>

It came from Force a File to Download Instead of Showing Up in the Browser.

Answer 6

Try adding this line to your .htaccess file.

AddType application/octet-stream .pdf

I hope it'll work as it is browser independent.