Question

I was wondering whether it is possible to force a browser (at least Chrome) to download a data:text/plain URL.

Chrome does download binary URLs (e.g. data:application/zip;base64,...), but it does not download files that can be viewed inside the browser (such as text files).

What I already tried with no luck so far is this:

data:text/plain;content-disposition=attachment;filename=test.txt;...

But it seems like I cannot add headers like this.

Is there any way to make Chrome download a data:text/plain,... URL?

Answer 1

As of now, it has been made possible to use <a download> in Chrome. Using dispatchEvent, you can download any string as file (even with a custom filename) whenever you want. Here’s a utility function to use it:

var downloadFile = function(filename, content) {
  var blob = new Blob([content]);
  var evt = document.createEvent("HTMLEvents");
  evt.initEvent("click");
  $("<a>", {
    download: filename,
    href: webkitURL.createObjectURL(blob)
  }).get(0).dispatchEvent(evt);
};

Usage:

downloadFile("foo.txt", "bar");

It uses jQuery and the webkit prefix, but both can be avoided.