Force to open "Save As..." popup open at text link click for PDF in HTML

A server-side solution is more compatible, until the "download" attribute is implemented in all the browsers.

One Python example could be a custom HTTP request handler for a filestore. The links that point to the filestore are generated like this:

http://www.myfilestore.com/filestore/13/130787e71/download_as/desiredName.pdf

Here is the code:

class HTTPFilestoreHandler(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):

    def __init__(self, fs_path, *args):
        self.fs_path = fs_path                          # Filestore path
        SimpleHTTPRequestHandler.__init__(self, *args)

    def send_head(self):
        # Overwrite SimpleHTTPRequestHandler.send_head to force download name
        path = self.path
        get_index = (path == '/')
        self.log_message("path: %s" % path)
        if '/download_as/' in path:
            p_parts = path.split('/download_as/')
            assert len(p_parts) == 2, 'Bad download link:' + path
            path, download_as = p_parts
        path = self.translate_path(path )
        f = None
        if os.path.isdir(path):
            if not self.path.endswith('/'):
                # Redirect browser - doing basically what Apache does
                self.send_response(301)
                self.send_header("Location", self.path + "/")
                self.end_headers()
                return None
            else:
                return self.list_directory(path)
        ctype = self.guess_type(path)
        try:
            f = open(path, 'rb')
        except IOError:
            self.send_error(404, "File not found")
            return None
        self.send_response(200)
        self.send_header("Content-type", ctype)
        fs = os.fstat(f.fileno())
        self.send_header("Expires", '0')
        self.send_header("Last-Modified", self.date_time_string(fs.st_mtime))
        self.send_header("Cache-Control", 'must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0')
        self.send_header("Content-Transfer-Encoding", 'binary')
        if download_as:
            self.send_header("Content-Disposition", 'attachment; filename="%s"' % download_as)
        self.send_header("Content-Length", str(fs[6]))
        self.send_header("Connection", 'close')
        self.end_headers()
        return f


class HTTPFilestoreServer:

    def __init__(self, fs_path, server_address):
        def handler(*args):
            newHandler = HTTPFilestoreHandler(fs_path, *args)
            newHandler.protocol_version = "HTTP/1.0"
        self.server = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer(server_address, handler)

    def serve_forever(self, *args):
        self.server.serve_forever(*args)


def start_server(fs_path, ip_address, port):
    server_address = (ip_address, port)
    httpd = HTTPFilestoreServer(fs_path, server_address)

    sa = httpd.server.socket.getsockname()
    print "Serving HTTP on", sa[0], "port", sa[1], "..."
    httpd.serve_forever()

This is old post but here is the one my solution in JavaScript what using jQuery library.

<script>
(function($){
    var download = [];
    $('a.force-download, .force-download a').each(function(){
        // Collect info
        var $this = $(this),
            $href = $this.attr('href'),
            $split = $href.split('/'),
            $name = document.title.replace(/[\W_]/gi, '-').replace(/-{2,}/g, '-'); // get title and clean it for the URL

        // Get filename from URL
        if($split[($split.length-1)])
        {
            $tmp = $split[($split.length-1)];
            $tmp = $tmp.split('.');
            $name = $tmp[0].replace(/[\W_]/gi, '-').replace(/-{2,}/g, '-');
        }

        // If name already exists, put timestamp there
        if($.inArray($name, download) > -1)
        {
            $name = $name + '-' + Date.now().replace(/[\W]/gi, '-');
        }

        $(this).attr("download", $name);
        download.push($name);
    });
}(jQuery || window.jQuery))
</script>

You just need to use class force-download inside your <a> tag and will force download automaticaly. You also can add it to parent div and will pickup all links inside it.

Example:

<a href="/some/good/url/Post-Injection_Post-Surgery_Instructions.pdf" class="force-download" target="_blank">Download PDF</a>

This is great for WordPress and any other systems or custom websites.

Add a response header Content-Disposition:attachment; followed by the file name. Remove the Meta Content-Disposition;Inline; which will open the document in the same window

In java it is set as

response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=test.jpg");

Chrome 91 had a new change, it supported in chrome 86-90 and 91+. The following syntax will make it happen.

const fileHandle = await self.showSaveFilePicker({
   suggestedName: 'Untitled Text.txt',
   types: [{
      description: 'Text documents',
      accept: {
        'text/plain': ['.txt'],
      },
   }],
});

Read more here:

https://developer.chrome.com/blog/new-in-chrome-91/

**Another solution you can just make it as a blob and then use saveAs **

const blob = fetch("some-url-here").then(data => data.blob());
saveAs(blob, "filename.txt")