Download File Using jQuery

How can I prompt a download for a user when they click a link.

For example, instead of:

<a href="uploads/file.doc">Download Here</a>

I could use:

<a href="#">Download Here</a>

 $('a').click... //Some jquery to download the file

This way, Google does not index my HREF's and private files.

Can this be done with jQuery, if so, how? Or should this be done with PHP or something instead?

I might suggest this, as a more gracefully degrading solution, using preventDefault:

$('a').click(function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();  //stop the browser from following
    window.location.href = 'uploads/file.doc';
});

<a href="no-script.html">Download now!</a>

Even if there's no Javascript, at least this way the user will get some feedback.

If you don't want search engines to index certain files, you can use robots.txt to tell web spiders not to access certain parts of your website.

If you rely only on javascript, then some users who browse without it won't be able to click your links.

Here's a nice article that shows many ways of hiding files from search engines:
> <http://antezeta.com/news/avoid-search-engine-indexing>

JavaScript isn't a good way not to index a page; it won't prevent users from linking directly to your files (and thus revealing it to crawlers), and as Rob mentioned, wouldn't work for all users.
An easy fix is to add the rel="nofollow" attribute, though again, it's not complete without robots.txt.

<a href="uploads/file.doc" rel="nofollow">Download Here</a>

 var link=document.createElement('a');
 document.body.appendChild(link);
 link.href=url;
 link.click();

Yes, you would have to change the window.location.href to the url of the file you would want to download.

window.location.href = 'http://www.com/path/to/file';

• Using jQuery function

       var valFileDownloadPath = 'http//:'+'your url';
  
      window.open(valFileDownloadPath , '_blank');
  

By stating window.location.href = 'uploads/file.doc'; you show where you store your files. You might of course use .htacess to force the required behaviour for stored files, but this might not always be handful....

It is better to create a server side php-file and place this content in it:

header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.$_REQUEST['f']);
readfile('../some_folder/some_subfolder/'.$_REQUEST['f']); 
exit;

This code will return ANY file as a download without showing where you actually store it.

You open this php-file via window.location.href = 'scripts/this_php_file.php?f=downloaded_file';

Hidden iframes can help

I suggest you use the mousedown event, which is called BEFORE the click event. That way, the browser handles the click event naturally, which avoids any code weirdness:

(function ($) {


    // with this solution, the browser handles the download link naturally (tested in chrome and firefox)
    $(document).ready(function () {

        var url = '/private/downloads/myfile123.pdf';
        $("a").on('mousedown', function () {
            $(this).attr("href", url);
        });

    });
})(jQuery);

See here for a similar post on using jQuery to clear forms: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/680241/blank-out-a-form-with-jquery

You may also be running into an issue where the values are being repopulated by the struts value stack. In other words, you submit your form, do whatever in the action class, but do not clear the related field values in the action class. In this scenario the form would appear to maintain the values you previously submitted. If you are persisting these in some way, just null each field value in your action class after persisting and prior to returning SUCCESS.

You can do this with html5 very easily:

var link = document.createElement('a');
link.href = "/WWW/test.pdf";
link.download = "file_" + new Date() + ".pdf";
link.click();
link.remove();