Rails CSV attachment opens in browser instead of d

Question

In my rails 3 application I provide a CSV template for users to download. Instead of downloading it simply opens the text in a new tab. Here is the code:

<a href="/templates/myFile.csv" target="_blank">click here</a>

This was working for me previously and I'm not sure what could have changed to break it. Other questions similar to this suggest adding target='_blank' or changing the headers but I haven't had much luck doing so.

I don't think it should make a difference, but this link is inside of a modal who's body comes from here:

<div class="modal hide" id="helpModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true">
  <%= modal_header "Help" %>
   <div class="modal-body">
    <%= render 'help' %>
  </div>
  <div class="modal-footer">
    <button class="btn" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">Close</button>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 1

You can use send_file method:

def download_file(file_path)
   send_file(file_path, :type => 'text/csv', :disposition => "attachment")
end

You can add this method to a controller and routes, then use it in your views:

link_to "Download", download_file_path('some_file.csv')

Answer 2

target="_blank" will open the file in a new tab. But it depends upon browser setting whether to open to the file in tab or to ask if the file is to be downloaded or not.