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Asked: 2026-05-26T19:46:57+00:00

I am currently working on a website that users can download binary media files

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I am currently working on a website that users can download binary media files from (mainly .mp3). We need a way for a “Download” button to save the file to the user’s specified location in their browser’s preferences, and it needs to somehow display a progress bar.

Currently, all I’m worried about is finding a way to implement this using HTML5 and doing it in such a way that in future versions we will later be able to access that stream so that once we get this basic download part coded, we can somehow implement a progress bar in the future.

I know HTML5 has a File API, but very few browsers currently allow its implementation, and we need this to work on IE 7+ and regularly used versions of Chrome and Firefox.

Thanks for your help!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    HTML5 supports the download attribute: http://webreflection.blogspot.com/2011/08/html5-how-to-create-downloads-on-fly.html

    Example:

    <a href="http://.../bad-romance.mp3" download="Bad Romance.mp3">Save "Bad Romance" to your computer</a>

    Clicking on this will allow the browser to handle the download (instead of opening the file using whatever application is associated with the mimetype), including a progress bar.

    Note: You really want to be careful not to deviate from normal user expectation by trying to create your own implementation. This is synonymous with forcing a link to open in a new tab–it can be confusing to the user if they are expecting one behavior but receive another. In your case, try to specifically explain that this will be a “download” link, not a “play” link. The example above does this, but a “download” icon might also suffice.

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