Question

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SOLVED: View the answer below marked SOLVED. Thanks.

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I am trying to download a file from location specified by url on click. I am using a delegate but when the button clicks the browser navigates to the location of the file and displays the contents. I want the click to trigger the browser’s download dialog.

Here is the code:

$('#left').delegate("a", "click", function(event){
    //alert("CLICKED");

    event.preventDefault();
    window.location.href = url;

});

All posts regarding this question says to use the “event.preventDefault();” but that does not work for me. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

You may need to change the server side (if you are able to).

The http response must contain the header:

Content-disposition: attachment; filename=fname.ext

So the browser knows that it must open the download dialog. Otherwise the browser will try to open/preview it.

More info:

Microsoft Support