Force a download of a text file in IE7 using javascript

Question

Saw a similar question at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/349067/download-a-file-using-javascript but this one is specific to IE and I'm using extjs and alfresco (opsoro). I can get a download prompt for text files fine in Opera, Chrome, and Firefox, but not IE.

Below is a list of what I've tried so far, which all work on other browsers except IE7.

document.location = downloadLocation;

window.open(downloadLocation,'Download');

location.href = downloadLocation;

When downloading other mimetypes (csv, xls), they download fine using any of the methods mentioned above.

Answer 1

You may need some help from the backend. Instead of serving the file statically, the backend app can load and serve the file contents with a content disposition header. That is guaranteed to invoke a download.

Content-disposition: attachment; filename=hello.txt

I don't know how you could do it with Alfresco, though.

Edit: Wait! Check this out: http://forums.alfresco.com/en/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=21356&p=70252