Is there any way to specify a suggested filename w

Question

If for example you follow the link:

data:application/octet-stream;base64,SGVsbG8=

The browser will prompt you to download a file consisting of the data held as base64 in the hyperlink itself. Is there any way of suggesting a default name in the markup? If not, is there a JavaScript solution?

Answer 1

According to RFC 2397, no, there isn't.

Nor does there appear to be any attribute of the <a> element that you can use either.

However HTML5 has subsequently introduced the download attribute on the <a> element, although at the time of writing support is not universal (no MSIE support, for example)

Answer 2

You actually can achieve this, in Chrome and FireFox.

Try the following url, it will download the code that was used.

data:text/html;base64,PGEgaHJlZj0iZGF0YTp0ZXh0L2h0bWw7YmFzZTY0LFBHRWdhSEpsWmowaVVGVlVYMFJCVkVGZlZWSkpYMGhGVWtVaUlHUnZkMjVzYjJGa1BTSjBaWE4wTG1oMGJXd2lQZ284YzJOeWFYQjBQZ3BrYjJOMWJXVnVkQzV4ZFdWeWVWTmxiR1ZqZEc5eUtDZGhKeWt1WTJ4cFkyc29LVHNLUEM5elkzSnBjSFErIiBkb3dubG9hZD0idGVzdC5odG1sIj4KPHNjcmlwdD4KZG9jdW1lbnQucXVlcnlTZWxlY3RvcignYScpLmNsaWNrKCk7Cjwvc2NyaXB0Pg==

Answer 3

The following Javascript snippet works in Chrome by using the new 'download' attribute of links and simulating a click.

function downloadWithName(uri, name) {
  var link = document.createElement("a");
  link.download = name;
  link.href = uri;
  link.click();
}

And the following example shows it's use:

downloadWithName("data:,Hello%2C%20World!", "helloWorld.txt")

Answer 4

I've looked a bit in firefox sources in netwerk/protocol/data/nsDataHandler.cpp

data handler only parses content/type and charset, and looks if there is ";base64" in the string

the rfc specifices no filename and at least firefox handles no filename for it, the code generates a random name plus ".part"

I've also checked firefox log

[b2e140]: DOCSHELL 6e5ae00 InternalLoad data:application/octet-stream;base64,SGVsbG8=
[b2e140]: Found extension '' (filename is '', handling attachment: 0)
[b2e140]: HelperAppService::DoContent: mime 'application/octet-stream', extension ''
[b2e140]: Getting mimeinfo from type 'application/octet-stream' ext ''
[b2e140]: Extension lookup on '' found: 0x0
[b2e140]: Ext. lookup for '' found 0x0
[b2e140]: OS gave back 0x43609a0 - found: 0
[b2e140]: Searched extras (by type), rv 0x80004005
[b2e140]: MIME Info Summary: Type 'application/octet-stream', Primary Ext ''
[b2e140]: Type/Ext lookup found 0x43609a0

interesting files if you want to look at mozilla sources:

data uri handler: netwerk/protocol/data/nsDataHandler.cpp
where mozilla decides the filename: uriloader/exthandler/nsExternalHelperAppService.cpp
InternalLoad string in the log: docshell/base/nsDocShell.cpp

I think you can stop searching a solution for now, because I suspect there is none :)

as noticed in this thread html5 has download attribute, it works also on firefox 20 http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/links.html#attr-hyperlink-download

Answer 5

var isIE = /*@cc_on!@*/false || !!document.documentMode; // At least IE6
var sessionId ='\n';
var token = '\n';
var caseId = CaseIDNumber + '\n';
var url = casewebUrl+'\n';
var uri = sessionId + token + caseId + url;//data in file
var fileName = "file.i4cvf";// any file name with any extension
if (isIE)
    {
            var fileData = ['\ufeff' + uri];
            var blobObject = new Blob(fileData);
            window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blobObject, fileName);
    }
    else //chrome
    {
        window.requestFileSystem = window.requestFileSystem || window.webkitRequestFileSystem;
         window.requestFileSystem(window.TEMPORARY, 1024 * 1024, function (fs) {
            fs.root.getFile(fileName, { create: true }, function (fileEntry) { 
                fileEntry.createWriter(function (fileWriter) {
                    var fileData = ['\ufeff' + uri];
                    var blob = new Blob(fileData);
                    fileWriter.addEventListener("writeend", function () {
                        var fileUrl = fileEntry.toURL();
                        var link = document.createElement('a');
                        link.href = fileUrl;
                        link.download = fileName;
                        document.body.appendChild(link);
                        link.click();
                        document.body.removeChild(link);
                    }, false);
                    fileWriter.write(blob);
                }, function () { });
            }, function () { });
         }, function () { });
    }

Answer 6

This one works with Firefox 43.0 (older not tested):

dl.js:

function download() {
  var msg="Hello world!";
  var blob = new File([msg], "hello.bin", {"type": "application/octet-stream"});

  var a = document.createElement("a");
  a.href = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

  window.location.href=a;
}

dl.html

<html lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8"/>
    <title>Test</title>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="dl.js"></script>
</head>

<body>
<button id="create" type="button" onclick="download();">Download</button>
</body>
</html>

If button is clicked it offered a file named hello.bin for download. Trick is to use File instead of Blob.

reference: https://developer.mozilla.org/de/docs/Web/API/File