How can I create download link in HTML?

Question

I have a basic idea of HTML. I want to create the download link in my sample website, but I don't have idea of how to create it. How do I make a link to download a file rather than visit it?

Answer 1

In addition (or in replacement) to the HTML5's <a download attribute already mentioned,
the browser's download to disk behavior can also be triggered by the following http response header:

Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=ProposedFileName.txt;

This was the way to do before HTML5 (and still works with browsers supporting HTML5).

Answer 2

The download attribute is new for the <a> tag in HTML5

<a href="http://www.odin.com/form.pdf" download>Download Form</a>
or
<a href="http://www.odin.com/form.pdf" download="Form">Download Form</a>

I prefer the first one it is preferable in respect to any extension.

Answer 3

To link to the file, do the same as any other page link:

<a href="...">link text</a>

To force things to download even if they have an embedded plugin (Windows + QuickTime = ugh), you can use this in your htaccess / apache2.conf:

AddType application/octet-stream EXTENSION

Answer 4

The download attribute doesn't work in IE, it ignores the "download" completely. The download doesn't work on Firefox if the href points to a remote site. So Odin's example doesn't work on Firefox 41.0.2.

Answer 5

In modern browsers that support HTML5, the following is possible:

<a href="link/to/your/download/file" download>Download link</a>

You also can use this:

<a href="link/to/your/download/file" download="filename">Download link</a>

This will allow you to change the name of the file actually being downloaded.

Answer 6

A download link would be a link to the resource you want to download. It is constructed in the same way that any other link would be:

<a href="path to resource.name of file">Link</a>

<a href="files/installer.exe">Link to installer</a>