I want to start file downloading when I clicked the button.
I just have the path of the file.
How can I start downloading?
This is what I tried so far:

$('#download_button').click(function(){

    var filepath = $(this).attr('data-filepath');
    var do = '<a href="'+ filepath +'" download="file">file</a>';
    $(body).append(do);
});

What I am doing wrong.
I never want to redirect the page.
Is downloading start in browser or in software for downloading files if installed on client machine

I want to start file downloading when I clicked the button.
I just have the path of the file.
How can I start downloading?
This is what I tried so far:

$('#download_button').click(function(){

    var filepath = $(this).attr('data-filepath');
    var do = '<a href="'+ filepath +'" download="file">file</a>';
    $(body).append(do);
});

What I am doing wrong.
I never want to redirect the page.
Is downloading start in browser or in software for downloading files if installed on client machine

• javascript
• jquery

4 Answers 4

Alternatively you can also set the top.location

$('#download_button').click(function(){
    var filepath = $(this).attr('data-filepath');
    top.location.href = filepath;
});

You cannot force a file to be downloaded in JavaScript.

What you can do is location.href = "somefile.ext";, however it will only be downloaded if the server includes Content-Disposition: attachment as one of its response headers to that file request.

If you want to download a file to the client, then do this:

$('#download_button').click(function(){
    var filepath = $(this).attr('data-filepath');
    location.href = filepath;
});

location.href will look for a page, but it will not find anything, so it will download the file instead.

You can create a form using jQuery and use the submit function. This will not change the URL in the address bar.

$('#download_button').click(function(){

        var filepath = $(this).attr('data-filepath');
        var form = $('<form>').attr('action', filepath);
        form.submit();
});