Forcing the browser to pop a save as dialog box from a link pointing to remote url

Question

Hi, I am building a web app that lets the user directly download files on a cdn by clicking a link. The link should point to the cdn url directly in order to minimize the load on our servers.

We would like the to have the browser pop up the save as dialog box when the user clicks the link to download the file and not have the browser display the content of the file at all. So the page should not reload. However, we don't have access to setting the HTTP headers sent back from cdn. Is it possible to still pop up the save as dialog box for download using client-side code?

Answer 1

Is it possible to still pop up the save as dialog box for download using client-side code?

No. Unless the file type is something the browser does not understand (or the HTTP header Content-Disposition is "attachment"), the "Save As" dialog will not appear.

This behavior cannot be changed by JavaScript.

Answer 2

The behavior is controlled by the Content-Disposition header, unless the browser simply doesn't understand how to display content of the type returned. Without the ability to change the Content-Disposition header to attachment, you can't force the browser to download the file instead of render it. This must be done server-side.