File download script doesn't work when called from Ajax

Question

I'm using the following script to initiate file downloads:

if (file_exists($newfilename)) {
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($newfilename));
    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($newfilename));
    ob_clean();
    flush();
    readfile($newfilename);
    exit;
}

It works fine when I open the page directly, but the thing is, I need this script to be called through Ajax from another page. When I do that, then the download doesn't start. The rest of the script does what it's supposed to.

I assume the problem is not being able to use the header function this way, but surely there's a way to make this work?

This is the Ajax function if it's of any help:

<script type="text/javascript">
    // function create GetXmlHttpObject
    function GetXmlHttpObject()
    {
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
    {
    // code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
    return new XMLHttpRequest();
    }
    if (window.ActiveXObject)
    {
    // code for IE6, IE5
    return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
    }
    return null;
    }

    function submitVideoAjax(){
    var myAjaxPostrequest=new GetXmlHttpObject();

    var t2_title=document.video_form.title.value;

    var parameters="title="+t2_title;

    myAjaxPostrequest.open("POST", "newdownloadmanager.php", true);
    myAjaxPostrequest.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
    myAjaxPostrequest.send(parameters);
    myAjaxPostrequest.onreadystatechange=function(){
    if(myAjaxPostrequest.readyState==4){
    if(myAjaxPostrequest.status==200){
    document.getElementById("result").innerHTML=myAjaxPostrequest.responseText;
    document.getElementById("video_form").style.display = "none";

    }
    else    {
    document.getElementById("video_form").innerHTML="An error has occured making the request";
    }
    }
    }
    }
    </script>

And this is the form:

<form name='video_form' id='video_form' method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="title" id="title" value="Madelyn2-01.mp4"/>
<button type="button" name="submit_video" id="submit_video" onclick="submitVideoAjax();">Download</button>
</form>

What makes you believe that it could work? Because you want it? — hakre

Darin Dimitrov Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-07T16:53:23

You cannot use AJAX to download files. It doesn't make sense. You can send the AJAX request and fetch the file contents inside the success handler on the client, but for obvious security reasons you can't do much with it. You cannot save it on the client computer and there's no javascript API allowing you to prompt the user where to save it.

So to download files, don't use AJAX. Create an anchor pointing to your server side script that serves the file to be downloaded.

File download script doesn't work when called from Ajax

5 Answers