Question

right now we are using href to link to downloadfile.asp with the parameters so we have a browser window opens.

is it possible with jquery/ajax?

Answer 1

Using AJAX you could fetch the remote resource but the file will be represented by a byte array you won’t be capable of doing much with it in javascript. You can’t save it to the user’s computer. Think of it this way: if this was possible you would be able to store EXEcutables on the user computer without him realizing which is kinda bad idea, don’t you think so?

That’s why it is more common to provide normal links to download files so that the user gets a Save As… dialog and decides where does he wants to store the file on his computer. Just make sure to set the proper Content-Disposition header on your server:

Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=foo.txt

or

Content-Disposition: inline;filename=foo.txt

The difference is that with the first the user gets the Save As… dialog and with the second the browser will try to display the file inside the navigator if there’s an appropriate plugin installed (example Adobe Reader for PDF files).