How to make PDF file downloadable in HTML link

Question

I am giving link of a pdf file on my web page for download  like below   lt a href  myfile pdf  gt Download Brochure lt  a gt    The problem is when user clicks on this link then   If the user have installed Adobe Acrobat  then it opens the file in the same browser window in Adobe Reader  If the Adobe Acrobat is not installed then it pop-up to the user for Downloading the file    But I want it always pop-up to the user for download  irrespective of  Adobe acrobat  is installed or not   Please tell me how i can do this

User · Answer

In a Ruby on Rails application  especially with something like the Prawn gem and the Prawnto Rails plugin   you can accomplish this a little more simply than a full on script  like the previous PHP example    In your controller   def index   respond to do  format     format html   Your HTML view    format pdf   render  layout   gt  false    end end   The render  layout    false part tells the browser to open up the  Would you like to download this file   prompt instead of attempting to render the PDF  Then you would be able to link to the file normally  http   mysite com myawesomepdf pdf

User · Answer

This is a common issue but few people know there s a simple HTML 5 solution    lt a href    directory yourfile pdf  download  newfilename  gt Download the pdf lt  a gt    Where newfilename is the suggested filename for the user to save the file  Or it will default to the filename on the serverside if you leave it empty  like this    lt a href    directory yourfile pdf  download gt Download the pdf lt  a gt    Compatibility  I tested this on Firefox 21 and Iron  both worked fine  It might not work on HTML5-incompatible or outdated browsers  The only browser I tested that didn t force download is IE     Check compatibility here  http   caniuse com  feat download

User · Answer

I found a way to do it with plain old HTML and JavaScript jQuery that degrades gracefully  Tested in IE7-10  Safari  Chrome  and FF   HTML for download link    lt p gt Thanks for downloading  If your download doesn t start shortly    lt a id  downloadLink  href     yourpdf pdf  target   blank   type  application octet-stream  download  yourpdf pdf  gt click here lt  a gt   lt  p gt    jQuery  pure JavaScript code would be more verbose  that simulates clicking on link after a small delay   var delay   3000  window setTimeout function       downloadLink   0  click     delay     To make this more robust you could add HTML5 feature detection and if it s not there then use window open   to open a new window with the file

User · Answer

I know I am very late to answer this but I found a hack to do this in javascript   function downloadFile src       var link document createElement  a        document body appendChild link       link href  src      link download           link click

User · Answer

Try this    lt a href  pdf server with path php file pdffilename amp path http   myurl com mypath   gt Download my eBook lt  a gt   The code inside pdf server with path php is   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      file     GET  file      pdf    path     GET  path     fullfile    path  file   header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     Urlencode  file       header  Content-Type  application force-download    header  Content-Type  application octet-stream    header  Content-Type  application download    header  Content-Description  File Transfer                header  Content-Length      Filesize  fullfile    flush       this doesn t really matter   fp   fopen  fullfile   r    while   feof  fp         echo fread  fp  65536       flush       this is essential for large downloads    fclose  fp

User · Answer

Instead of linking to the  PDF file  instead do something like    lt a href  pdf server php file pdffilename  gt Download my eBook lt  a gt    which outputs a custom header  opens the PDF  binary safe  and prints the data to the user s browser  then they can choose to save the PDF despite their browser settings   The pdf server php should look like this   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      file     GET  file      pdf   header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     urlencode  file       header  Content-Type  application octet-stream    header  Content-Type  application download    header  Content-Description  File Transfer                header  Content-Length      filesize  file    flush       this doesn t really matter   fp   fopen  file   r    while   feof  fp         echo fread  fp  65536       flush       this is essential for large downloads    fclose  fp      PS  and obviously run some sanity checks on the  file  variable to prevent people from stealing your files such as don t accept file extensions  deny slashes  add  pdf to the value

User · Answer

This can be achieved using HTML   lt a href  quot myfile pdf quot  gt Download Brochure lt  a gt   Add download attribute to it  Here the file name will be myfile pdf  lt a href  quot myfile pdf quot  download gt Download Brochure lt  a gt   Specify a value for the download attribute   lt a href  quot myfile pdf quot  download  quot Brochure quot  gt Download Brochure lt  a gt   Here the file name will be Brochure pdf

User · Answer

if you need to limit download rate  use this code      lt  php  local file    file zip    download file    name zip       set the download rate limit    gt  20 5 kb s   download rate   20 5  if file exists  local file   amp  amp  is file  local file     header  Cache-control  private    header  Content-Type  application octet-stream    header  Content-Length    filesize  local file    header  Content-Disposition  filename    download file    flush     file   fopen  local file   r    while  feof  file            send the current file part to the browser     print fread  file  round  download rate   1024           flush the content to the browser     flush           sleep one second     sleep 1     fclose  file    else   die  Error  The file    local file   does not exist          gt    For more information click here

User · Answer

Here s a different approach  I prefer rather than to rely on browser support  or address this at the application layer  to use web server logic   If you are using Apache  and can put an  htaccess file in the relevant directory you could use the code below  Of course  you could put this in httpd conf as well  if you have access to that    lt FilesMatch      i pdf    gt    Header set Content-Disposition attachment  lt  FilesMatch gt    The FilesMatch directive is just a regex so it could be set as granularly as you want  or you could add in other extensions   The Header line does the same thing as the first line in the PHP scripts above  If you need to set the Content-Type lines as well  you could do so in the same manner  but I haven t found that necessary

User · Answer

I found a way to do it with plain old HTML and JavaScript jQuery that degrades gracefully  Tested in IE7-10  Safari  Chrome  and FF   HTML for download link    lt p gt Thanks for downloading  If your download doesn t start shortly    lt a id  downloadLink  href     yourpdf pdf  target   blank   type  application octet-stream  download  yourpdf pdf  gt click here lt  a gt   lt  p gt    jQuery  pure JavaScript code would be more verbose  that simulates clicking on link after a small delay   var delay   3000  window setTimeout function       downloadLink   0  click     delay     To make this more robust you could add HTML5 feature detection and if it s not there then use window open   to open a new window with the file

User · Answer

Here s a different approach  I prefer rather than to rely on browser support  or address this at the application layer  to use web server logic   If you are using Apache  and can put an  htaccess file in the relevant directory you could use the code below  Of course  you could put this in httpd conf as well  if you have access to that    lt FilesMatch      i pdf    gt    Header set Content-Disposition attachment  lt  FilesMatch gt    The FilesMatch directive is just a regex so it could be set as granularly as you want  or you could add in other extensions   The Header line does the same thing as the first line in the PHP scripts above  If you need to set the Content-Type lines as well  you could do so in the same manner  but I haven t found that necessary

User · Answer

In a Ruby on Rails application  especially with something like the Prawn gem and the Prawnto Rails plugin   you can accomplish this a little more simply than a full on script  like the previous PHP example    In your controller   def index   respond to do  format     format html   Your HTML view    format pdf   render  layout   gt  false    end end   The render  layout    false part tells the browser to open up the  Would you like to download this file   prompt instead of attempting to render the PDF  Then you would be able to link to the file normally  http   mysite com myawesomepdf pdf

User · Answer

In a Ruby on Rails application  especially with something like the Prawn gem and the Prawnto Rails plugin   you can accomplish this a little more simply than a full on script  like the previous PHP example    In your controller   def index   respond to do  format     format html   Your HTML view    format pdf   render  layout   gt  false    end end   The render  layout    false part tells the browser to open up the  Would you like to download this file   prompt instead of attempting to render the PDF  Then you would be able to link to the file normally  http   mysite com myawesomepdf pdf

User · Answer

Don t loop through every file line  Use readfile instead  its faster   This is off the php site  http   php net manual en function readfile php   file     GET  file    if  file exists  file         header  Content-Description  File Transfer        header  Content-Type  application octet-stream        header  Content-Type  application force-download        header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     urlencode basename  file            header  Content-Transfer-Encoding  binary        header  Expires  0        header  Cache-Control  must-revalidate  post-check 0  pre-check 0        header  Pragma  public        header  Content-Length      filesize  file        ob clean        flush        readfile  file       exit      Make sure to sanitize your get variable as someone could download some php files

User · Answer

This is a common issue but few people know there s a simple HTML 5 solution    lt a href    directory yourfile pdf  download  newfilename  gt Download the pdf lt  a gt    Where newfilename is the suggested filename for the user to save the file  Or it will default to the filename on the serverside if you leave it empty  like this    lt a href    directory yourfile pdf  download gt Download the pdf lt  a gt    Compatibility  I tested this on Firefox 21 and Iron  both worked fine  It might not work on HTML5-incompatible or outdated browsers  The only browser I tested that didn t force download is IE     Check compatibility here  http   caniuse com  feat download

User · Answer

This is the key   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      Content-type application x-pdf-document or application pdf is sent while sending PDF file  Adobe Reader usually sets the handler for this MIME type so browser will pass the document to Adobe Reader when any of PDF MIME types is received

User · Answer

lt  DOCTYPE html gt     lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  gt     lt head gt         lt title gt File Uploader lt  title gt         lt script src     Script angular1 3 8 js  gt  lt  script gt         lt script src     Script angular-route js  gt  lt  script gt         lt script src     UserScript MyApp js  gt  lt  script gt         lt script src     UserScript FileUploder js  gt  lt  script gt         lt  gt             percent                 position  absolute                width  300px                height  14px                z-index  1                text-align  center                font-size  0 8em                color  white                          progress-bar                 width  300px                height  14px                border-radius  10px                border  1px solid  CCC                background-image  -webkit-gradient linear  left top  left bottom  from  6666cc   to  4b4b95                  border-image  initial                          uploaded                 padding  0                height  14px                border-radius  10px                background-image  -webkit-gradient linear  left top  left bottom  from  66cc00   to  4b9500                  border-image  initial                     lt   gt     lt  head gt     lt body ng-app  MyApp  ng-controller  FileUploder  gt         lt div gt             lt table   width 100  border solid   gt                 lt tr gt                     lt td gt Select File lt  td gt                     lt td gt                         lt input type  file  ng-model-instant id  fileToUpload  onchange  angular element this  scope   setFiles this     gt                     lt  td gt                 lt  tr gt                 lt tr gt                     lt td gt File Size lt  td gt                     lt td gt                         lt div ng-repeat  file in files slice 0   gt                             lt span ng-switch  file size  gt  1024 1024  gt                                 lt span ng-switch-when  true  gt   file size   1024   1024   number 2   MB lt  span gt                                 lt span ng-switch-default gt   file size   1024   number 2   kB lt  span gt                             lt  span gt                         lt  div gt                     lt  td gt                 lt  tr gt                            lt tr gt                     lt td gt                        File Attach Status                    lt  td gt                     lt td gt   AttachStatus   lt  td gt                 lt  tr gt                 lt tr gt                     lt td gt                         lt input type  button  value  Upload  ng-click  fnUpload       gt                     lt  td gt                     lt td gt                         lt input type  button  value  DownLoad  ng-click  fnDownLoad       gt                     lt  td gt                 lt  tr gt             lt  table gt         lt  div gt     lt  body gt     lt  html gt

User · Answer

Instead of using a PHP script  to read and flush the file  it s more neat to rewrite the header using  htaccess  This will keep a  nice  URL  myfile pdf instead of download php myfile     lt FilesMatch    pdf   gt  ForceType applicaton octet-stream Header set Content-Disposition attachment  lt  FilesMatch gt

User · Answer

Instead of linking to the  PDF file  instead do something like    lt a href  pdf server php file pdffilename  gt Download my eBook lt  a gt    which outputs a custom header  opens the PDF  binary safe  and prints the data to the user s browser  then they can choose to save the PDF despite their browser settings   The pdf server php should look like this   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      file     GET  file      pdf   header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     urlencode  file       header  Content-Type  application octet-stream    header  Content-Type  application download    header  Content-Description  File Transfer                header  Content-Length      filesize  file    flush       this doesn t really matter   fp   fopen  file   r    while   feof  fp         echo fread  fp  65536       flush       this is essential for large downloads    fclose  fp      PS  and obviously run some sanity checks on the  file  variable to prevent people from stealing your files such as don t accept file extensions  deny slashes  add  pdf to the value

User · Answer

Instead of using a PHP script  to read and flush the file  it s more neat to rewrite the header using  htaccess  This will keep a  nice  URL  myfile pdf instead of download php myfile     lt FilesMatch    pdf   gt  ForceType applicaton octet-stream Header set Content-Disposition attachment  lt  FilesMatch gt

User · Answer

I solved mine using the whole url of the PDF file  Instead of just putting the file name or location to href        a href  domain   com pdf filename pdf

User · Answer

Instead of linking to the  PDF file  instead do something like    lt a href  pdf server php file pdffilename  gt Download my eBook lt  a gt    which outputs a custom header  opens the PDF  binary safe  and prints the data to the user s browser  then they can choose to save the PDF despite their browser settings   The pdf server php should look like this   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      file     GET  file      pdf   header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     urlencode  file       header  Content-Type  application octet-stream    header  Content-Type  application download    header  Content-Description  File Transfer                header  Content-Length      filesize  file    flush       this doesn t really matter   fp   fopen  file   r    while   feof  fp         echo fread  fp  65536       flush       this is essential for large downloads    fclose  fp      PS  and obviously run some sanity checks on the  file  variable to prevent people from stealing your files such as don t accept file extensions  deny slashes  add  pdf to the value

User · Answer

Try this    lt a href  pdf server with path php file pdffilename amp path http   myurl com mypath   gt Download my eBook lt  a gt   The code inside pdf server with path php is   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      file     GET  file      pdf    path     GET  path     fullfile    path  file   header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     Urlencode  file       header  Content-Type  application force-download    header  Content-Type  application octet-stream    header  Content-Type  application download    header  Content-Description  File Transfer                header  Content-Length      Filesize  fullfile    flush       this doesn t really matter   fp   fopen  fullfile   r    while   feof  fp         echo fread  fp  65536       flush       this is essential for large downloads    fclose  fp

User · Answer

Don t loop through every file line  Use readfile instead  its faster   This is off the php site  http   php net manual en function readfile php   file     GET  file    if  file exists  file         header  Content-Description  File Transfer        header  Content-Type  application octet-stream        header  Content-Type  application force-download        header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     urlencode basename  file            header  Content-Transfer-Encoding  binary        header  Expires  0        header  Cache-Control  must-revalidate  post-check 0  pre-check 0        header  Pragma  public        header  Content-Length      filesize  file        ob clean        flush        readfile  file       exit      Make sure to sanitize your get variable as someone could download some php files

User · Answer

This is the key   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      Content-type application x-pdf-document or application pdf is sent while sending PDF file  Adobe Reader usually sets the handler for this MIME type so browser will pass the document to Adobe Reader when any of PDF MIME types is received

User · Answer

lt  DOCTYPE html gt     lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  gt     lt head gt         lt title gt File Uploader lt  title gt         lt script src     Script angular1 3 8 js  gt  lt  script gt         lt script src     Script angular-route js  gt  lt  script gt         lt script src     UserScript MyApp js  gt  lt  script gt         lt script src     UserScript FileUploder js  gt  lt  script gt         lt  gt             percent                 position  absolute                width  300px                height  14px                z-index  1                text-align  center                font-size  0 8em                color  white                          progress-bar                 width  300px                height  14px                border-radius  10px                border  1px solid  CCC                background-image  -webkit-gradient linear  left top  left bottom  from  6666cc   to  4b4b95                  border-image  initial                          uploaded                 padding  0                height  14px                border-radius  10px                background-image  -webkit-gradient linear  left top  left bottom  from  66cc00   to  4b9500                  border-image  initial                     lt   gt     lt  head gt     lt body ng-app  MyApp  ng-controller  FileUploder  gt         lt div gt             lt table   width 100  border solid   gt                 lt tr gt                     lt td gt Select File lt  td gt                     lt td gt                         lt input type  file  ng-model-instant id  fileToUpload  onchange  angular element this  scope   setFiles this     gt                     lt  td gt                 lt  tr gt                 lt tr gt                     lt td gt File Size lt  td gt                     lt td gt                         lt div ng-repeat  file in files slice 0   gt                             lt span ng-switch  file size  gt  1024 1024  gt                                 lt span ng-switch-when  true  gt   file size   1024   1024   number 2   MB lt  span gt                                 lt span ng-switch-default gt   file size   1024   number 2   kB lt  span gt                             lt  span gt                         lt  div gt                     lt  td gt                 lt  tr gt                            lt tr gt                     lt td gt                        File Attach Status                    lt  td gt                     lt td gt   AttachStatus   lt  td gt                 lt  tr gt                 lt tr gt                     lt td gt                         lt input type  button  value  Upload  ng-click  fnUpload       gt                     lt  td gt                     lt td gt                         lt input type  button  value  DownLoad  ng-click  fnDownLoad       gt                     lt  td gt                 lt  tr gt             lt  table gt         lt  div gt     lt  body gt     lt  html gt

User · Answer

This is the key   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      Content-type application x-pdf-document or application pdf is sent while sending PDF file  Adobe Reader usually sets the handler for this MIME type so browser will pass the document to Adobe Reader when any of PDF MIME types is received

User · Answer

Instead of linking to the  PDF file  instead do something like    lt a href  pdf server php file pdffilename  gt Download my eBook lt  a gt    which outputs a custom header  opens the PDF  binary safe  and prints the data to the user s browser  then they can choose to save the PDF despite their browser settings   The pdf server php should look like this   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      file     GET  file      pdf   header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     urlencode  file       header  Content-Type  application octet-stream    header  Content-Type  application download    header  Content-Description  File Transfer                header  Content-Length      filesize  file    flush       this doesn t really matter   fp   fopen  file   r    while   feof  fp         echo fread  fp  65536       flush       this is essential for large downloads    fclose  fp      PS  and obviously run some sanity checks on the  file  variable to prevent people from stealing your files such as don t accept file extensions  deny slashes  add  pdf to the value

User · Answer

I know I am very late to answer this but I found a hack to do this in javascript   function downloadFile src       var link document createElement  a        document body appendChild link       link href  src      link download           link click

User · Answer

This can be achieved using HTML   lt a href  quot myfile pdf quot  gt Download Brochure lt  a gt   Add download attribute to it  Here the file name will be myfile pdf  lt a href  quot myfile pdf quot  download gt Download Brochure lt  a gt   Specify a value for the download attribute   lt a href  quot myfile pdf quot  download  quot Brochure quot  gt Download Brochure lt  a gt   Here the file name will be Brochure pdf

User · Answer

This is the key   header  Content-Type  application octet-stream      Content-type application x-pdf-document or application pdf is sent while sending PDF file  Adobe Reader usually sets the handler for this MIME type so browser will pass the document to Adobe Reader when any of PDF MIME types is received

User · Answer

In a Ruby on Rails application  especially with something like the Prawn gem and the Prawnto Rails plugin   you can accomplish this a little more simply than a full on script  like the previous PHP example    In your controller   def index   respond to do  format     format html   Your HTML view    format pdf   render  layout   gt  false    end end   The render  layout    false part tells the browser to open up the  Would you like to download this file   prompt instead of attempting to render the PDF  Then you would be able to link to the file normally  http   mysite com myawesomepdf pdf

User · Answer

if you need to limit download rate  use this code      lt  php  local file    file zip    download file    name zip       set the download rate limit    gt  20 5 kb s   download rate   20 5  if file exists  local file   amp  amp  is file  local file     header  Cache-control  private    header  Content-Type  application octet-stream    header  Content-Length    filesize  local file    header  Content-Disposition  filename    download file    flush     file   fopen  local file   r    while  feof  file            send the current file part to the browser     print fread  file  round  download rate   1024           flush the content to the browser     flush           sleep one second     sleep 1     fclose  file    else   die  Error  The file    local file   does not exist          gt    For more information click here

User · Answer

I solved mine using the whole url of the PDF file  Instead of just putting the file name or location to href        a href  domain   com pdf filename pdf

[php] How to make PDF file downloadable in HTML link?

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