Download pdf file using jquery ajax

Question

I want to download a pdf file for jquery ajax response. Ajax response contains pdf file data. I tried this solution. My code is given below but I always get a blank pdf.

$(document).on('click', '.download-ss-btn', function () {

    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: 'http://127.0.0.1:8080/utils/json/pdfGen',
        data: {
            data: JSON.stringify(jsonData)
        }

    }).done(function (data) {
        var blob = new Blob([data]);
        var link = document.createElement('a');
        link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
        link.download = "Sample.pdf";
        link.click();
    });


});

Answer 1

jQuery has some issues loading binary data using AJAX requests, as it does not yet implement some HTML5 XHR v2 capabilities, see this enhancement request and this discussion

Given that, you have one of two solutions:

First solution, abandon JQuery and use XMLHTTPRequest

Go with the native HTMLHTTPRequest, here is the code to do what you need

  var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
  req.open("GET", "/file.pdf", true);
  req.responseType = "blob";

  req.onload = function (event) {
    var blob = req.response;
    console.log(blob.size);
    var link=document.createElement('a');
    link.href=window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
    link.download="Dossier_" + new Date() + ".pdf";
    link.click();
  };

  req.send();

Second solution, use the jquery-ajax-native plugin

The plugin can be found here and can be used to the XHR V2 capabilities missing in JQuery, here is a sample code how to use it

$.ajax({
  dataType: 'native',
  url: "/file.pdf",
  xhrFields: {
    responseType: 'blob'
  },
  success: function(blob){
    console.log(blob.size);
      var link=document.createElement('a');
      link.href=window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
      link.download="Dossier_" + new Date() + ".pdf";
      link.click();
  }
});

Answer 2

I am newbie and most of the code is from google search. I got my pdf download working with the code below (trial and error play). Thank you for code tips (xhrFields) above.

$.ajax({
            cache: false,
            type: 'POST',
            url: 'yourURL',
            contentType: false,
            processData: false,
            data: yourdata,
             //xhrFields is what did the trick to read the blob to pdf
            xhrFields: {
                responseType: 'blob'
            },
            success: function (response, status, xhr) {

                var filename = "";                   
                var disposition = xhr.getResponseHeader('Content-Disposition');

                 if (disposition) {
                    var filenameRegex = /filename[^;=\n]*=((['"]).*?\2|[^;\n]*)/;
                    var matches = filenameRegex.exec(disposition);
                    if (matches !== null && matches[1]) filename = matches[1].replace(/['"]/g, '');
                } 
                var linkelem = document.createElement('a');
                try {
                                           var blob = new Blob([response], { type: 'application/octet-stream' });                        

                    if (typeof window.navigator.msSaveBlob !== 'undefined') {
                        //   IE workaround for "HTML7007: One or more blob URLs were revoked by closing the blob for which they were created. These URLs will no longer resolve as the data backing the URL has been freed."
                        window.navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, filename);
                    } else {
                        var URL = window.URL || window.webkitURL;
                        var downloadUrl = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

                        if (filename) { 
                            // use HTML5 a[download] attribute to specify filename
                            var a = document.createElement("a");

                            // safari doesn't support this yet
                            if (typeof a.download === 'undefined') {
                                window.location = downloadUrl;
                            } else {
                                a.href = downloadUrl;
                                a.download = filename;
                                document.body.appendChild(a);
                                a.target = "_blank";
                                a.click();
                            }
                        } else {
                            window.location = downloadUrl;
                        }
                    }   

                } catch (ex) {
                    console.log(ex);
                } 
            }
        });

Answer 3

You can do this with html5 very easily:

var link = document.createElement('a');
link.href = "/WWW/test.pdf";
link.download = "file_" + new Date() + ".pdf";
link.click();
link.remove();

Answer 4

For those looking a more modern approach, you can use the fetch API. The following example shows how to download a PDF file. It is easily done with the following code.

fetch(url, {
    body: JSON.stringify(data),
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8'
    },
})
.then(response => response.blob())
.then(response => {
    const blob = new Blob([response], {type: 'application/pdf'});
    const downloadUrl = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
    const a = document.createElement("a");
    a.href = downloadUrl;
    a.download = "file.pdf";
    document.body.appendChild(a);
    a.click();
})

I believe this approach to be much easier to understand than other XMLHttpRequest solutions. Also, it has a similar syntax to the jQuery approach, without the need to add any additional libraries.

Of course, I would advise checking to which browser you are developing, since this new approach won't work on IE. You can find the full browser compatibility list on the following [link][1].

Important: In this example I am sending a JSON request to a server listening on the given url. This url must be set, on my example I am assuming you know this part. Also, consider the headers needed for your request to work. Since I am sending a JSON, I must add the Content-Type header and set it to application/json; charset=utf-8, as to let the server know the type of request it will receive.

Answer 5

Try this:

$(document).on('click', '.download-ss-btn', function () {

    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: 'http://127.0.0.1:8080/utils/json/pdfGen',
        data: {
            data: JSON.stringify(jsonData)
        },
        headers: {
            'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8'
        }

    }).done(function (data) {
        let binaryString = window.atob(data);
        let binaryLen = binaryString.length;
        let bytes = new Uint8Array(binaryLen);

        for (let i = 0; i < binaryLen; i++) {
            let ascii = binaryString.charCodeAt(i);
            bytes[i] = ascii;
        }
        var blob = new Blob([data], {type: "application/pdf"});
        var link = document.createElement('a');
        link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
        link.download = "Sample.pdf";
        link.click();
    });
});