Forcefully download Link

Help / Discuss
, ,
#1

How can I create a Link, that forcefully begins a file Download?

Example:
In our xwiki are lots of .TXT (or similar Text based files) Files linked.
By a regular xwiki Link, choosing such a Link, just opens a new Browser Tab which shows the Content of the Text File.
In my case, this is not the preferable behavior. I need a Download - not a Browser inline preview.

In HTML there is the possibility, to make a Link forcefully to a download Link.
Like:
{{html}}
Click here to download the Textfile!
{{/html}}

For a standard xwiki link, I see no parameter or Option to do so as well.
By using the HTML Macro, it is … ok, but I looked for a nicer way in xwiki to open up directly a download dialog, because not every regular User knows what HTML is, or what it can do.

I found this Topic:
https://forum.xwiki.org/t/force-an-attachment-to-download/1136/7
But like the last Post says, it doesnt work…

Are there any Ideas, how to handle that?
We are using xwiki 9.11

Thanks for your help!

#2

AFAIK only Chrome respect this parameter. At least Firefox does not seems to care.

You can pass any parameters you want to the link in wiki syntax:

[[Click here to download the Textfile!>>attach:SomeTextFile.txt||download="SomeTextFile.txt"]]

See http://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Documentation/UserGuide/Features/XWikiSyntax/#HLinks for more details about link syntax.

#3

I’ve read the Syntax documentation but It wasn’t clear to me that all html attributes were allowed, thanks for clearing that up!

Just a heads up: According to https://caniuse.com/#search=download, Firefox does supports this attribute. However, it just supports just same-origin download.

#4

The download action supports a force-download request (query string) parameter. But you need to add it to the attachment URL:

{{velocity}}
[[Download>>path:$doc.getAttachmentURL('someTextFile.txt', 'download', 'force-download=1')]]
{{/velocity}}