[javascript] How do you serve a file for download with AngularJS or Javascript?

I have some text in a hidden textarea. When a button is clicked I would like to have the text offered for download as a .txt file. Is this possible using AngularJS or Javascript?

If you have access to on the server, consider setting headers as answered in this more general question.

Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=\"filename.xxx\"

Reading the comments on that answer, it is advisable to use a more specific Content-Type than octet-stream.

I didnt want Static Url. I have AjaxFactory for doing all ajax operations. I am getting url from the factory and binding it as follows.

<a target="_self" href="{{ file.downloadUrl + '/' + order.OrderId + '/' + fileName }}" download="{{fileName}}">{{fileName}}</a>

Thanks @AhlemMustapha

In our current project at work we had a invisible iFrame and I had to feed the url for the file to the iFrame to get a download dialog box. On the button click, the controller generates the dynamic url and triggers a $scope event where a custom directive I wrote, is listing. The directive will append a iFrame to the body if it does not exist already and sets the url attribute on it.

EDIT: Adding a directive

appModule.directive('fileDownload', function ($compile) {
    var fd = {
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function (scope, iElement, iAttrs) {

            scope.$on("downloadFile", function (e, url) {
                var iFrame = iElement.find("iframe");
                if (!(iFrame && iFrame.length > 0)) {
                    iFrame = $("<iframe style='position:fixed;display:none;top:-1px;left:-1px;'/>");
                    iElement.append(iFrame);
                }

                iFrame.attr("src", url);


            });
        }
    };

    return fd;
});

This directive responds to a controller event called downloadFile

so in your controller you do

$scope.$broadcast("downloadFile", url);

I had teh same problem and spend many hours find diferent solutions, and now I join all the comments in this post.I hope it, will be helpfull, my answer was correctly tested on Internet Explorer 11, Chrome and FireFox.

HTML :

<a href="#" class="btn btn-default" file-name="'fileName.extension'"  ng-click="getFile()" file-download="myBlobObject"><i class="fa fa-file-excel-o"></i></a>

DIRECTIVE :

directive('fileDownload',function(){
    return{
        restrict:'A',
        scope:{
            fileDownload:'=',
            fileName:'=',
        },

        link:function(scope,elem,atrs){


            scope.$watch('fileDownload',function(newValue, oldValue){

                if(newValue!=undefined && newValue!=null){
                    console.debug('Downloading a new file'); 
                    var isFirefox = typeof InstallTrigger !== 'undefined';
                    var isSafari = Object.prototype.toString.call(window.HTMLElement).indexOf('Constructor') > 0;
                    var isIE = /*@cc_on!@*/false || !!document.documentMode;
                    var isEdge = !isIE && !!window.StyleMedia;
                    var isChrome = !!window.chrome && !!window.chrome.webstore;
                    var isOpera = (!!window.opr && !!opr.addons) || !!window.opera || navigator.userAgent.indexOf(' OPR/') >= 0;
                    var isBlink = (isChrome || isOpera) && !!window.CSS;

                    if(isFirefox || isIE || isChrome){
                        if(isChrome){
                            console.log('Manage Google Chrome download');
                            var url = window.URL || window.webkitURL;
                            var fileURL = url.createObjectURL(scope.fileDownload);
                            var downloadLink = angular.element('<a></a>');//create a new  <a> tag element
                            downloadLink.attr('href',fileURL);
                            downloadLink.attr('download',scope.fileName);
                            downloadLink.attr('target','_self');
                            downloadLink[0].click();//call click function
                            url.revokeObjectURL(fileURL);//revoke the object from URL
                        }
                        if(isIE){
                            console.log('Manage IE download>10');
                            window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(scope.fileDownload,scope.fileName); 
                        }
                        if(isFirefox){
                            console.log('Manage Mozilla Firefox download');
                            var url = window.URL || window.webkitURL;
                            var fileURL = url.createObjectURL(scope.fileDownload);
                            var a=elem[0];//recover the <a> tag from directive
                            a.href=fileURL;
                            a.download=scope.fileName;
                            a.target='_self';
                            a.click();//we call click function
                        }


                    }else{
                        alert('SORRY YOUR BROWSER IS NOT COMPATIBLE');
                    }
                }
            });

        }
    }
})

IN CONTROLLER:

$scope.myBlobObject=undefined;
$scope.getFile=function(){
        console.log('download started, you can show a wating animation');
        serviceAsPromise.getStream({param1:'data1',param1:'data2', ...})
        .then(function(data){//is important that the data was returned as Aray Buffer
                console.log('Stream download complete, stop animation!');
                $scope.myBlobObject=new Blob([data],{ type:'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet'});
        },function(fail){
                console.log('Download Error, stop animation and show error message');
                                    $scope.myBlobObject=[];
                                });
                            }; 

IN SERVICE:

function getStream(params){
                 console.log("RUNNING");
                 var deferred = $q.defer();

                 $http({
                     url:'../downloadURL/',
                     method:"PUT",//you can use also GET or POST
                     data:params,
                     headers:{'Content-type': 'application/json'},
                     responseType : 'arraybuffer',//THIS IS IMPORTANT
                    })
                    .success(function (data) {
                        console.debug("SUCCESS");
                        deferred.resolve(data);
                    }).error(function (data) {
                         console.error("ERROR");
                         deferred.reject(data);
                    });

                 return deferred.promise;
                };

BACKEND(on SPRING):

@RequestMapping(value = "/downloadURL/", method = RequestMethod.PUT)
public void downloadExcel(HttpServletResponse response,
        @RequestBody Map<String,String> spParams
        ) throws IOException {
        OutputStream outStream=null;
outStream = response.getOutputStream();//is important manage the exceptions here
ObjectThatWritesOnOutputStream myWriter= new ObjectThatWritesOnOutputStream();// note that this object doesn exist on JAVA,
ObjectThatWritesOnOutputStream.write(outStream);//you can configure more things here
outStream.flush();
return;
}

You can set location.href to a data URI containing the data you want to let the user download. Besides this, I don't think there's any way to do it with just JavaScript.

Just click the button to download using following code.

in html

<a class="btn" ng-click="saveJSON()" ng-href="{{ url }}">Export to JSON</a>

In controller

$scope.saveJSON = function () {_x000D_
   $scope.toJSON = '';_x000D_
   $scope.toJSON = angular.toJson($scope.data);_x000D_
   var blob = new Blob([$scope.toJSON], { type:"application/json;charset=utf-8;" });   _x000D_
   var downloadLink = angular.element('<a></a>');_x000D_
                        downloadLink.attr('href',window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));_x000D_
                        downloadLink.attr('download', 'fileName.json');_x000D_
   downloadLink[0].click();_x000D_
  };

This can be done in javascript without the need to open another browser window.

window.location.assign('url');

Replace 'url' with the link to your file. You can put this in a function and call it with ng-click if you need to trigger the download from a button.

This worked for me in angular:

var a = document.createElement("a");
a.href = 'fileURL';
a.download = 'fileName';
a.click();

Try this

<a target="_self" href="mysite.com/uploads/ahlem.pdf" download="foo.pdf">

and visit this site it could be helpful for you :)

http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/

Would just like to add that in case it doesn't download the file because of unsafe:blob:null... when you hover over the download button, you have to sanitize it. For instance,

var app = angular.module('app', []);

app.config(function($compileProvider){

$compileProvider.aHrefSanitizationWhitelist(/^\s*(|blob|):/);