Forcing “Save As” dialog via jQuery GET

Question

I\'m calling a jQuery \"GET\" on the test.php file code below.

I\'m trying to get the script to pop a \"Save As\" dialog on the resulting test.ini file to allow it t

Answer 1

You can't get an ajax request to show a "Save As" dialog, but what you CAN do is insert a hidden iframe element in the page, then set the source of that iframe to the url you want the user to download. Voila, there's your Save As.

Here's a copy and paste example:

$('a#linky').click(function(){
  var iframe = document.createElement("iframe"); 
  iframe.src = 'http://example.com/branding.zip'; 
  iframe.style.display = "none"; 
  document.body.appendChild(iframe);
  return false;
});

Answer 2

You don't need an AJAX for this. Just navigate to the php in question and in that php use

header('Content-disposition: attachment;filename=whatever.dat');

This will pop-up the "save as" dialogue box and you'll remain on the original page.

Answer 3

An AJAX request can't spawn the file download dialog. Consider instead opening your download target in a new window.