How to start automatic download of a file in Internet Explorer?
SourceForge uses an <iframe> element with the src="" attribute pointing to the file to download.
<iframe width="1" height="1" frameborder="0" src="[File location]"></iframe>(Side effect: no redirect, no JavaScript, original URL remains unchanged.)
I hate when sites complicate download so much and use hacks instead of a good old link.
Dead simple version:
<a href="file.zip">Start automatic download!</a>It works! In every browser!
If you want to download a file that is usually displayed inline (such as an image) then HTML5 has a download attribute that forces download of the file. It also allows you to override filename (although there is a better way to do it):
<a href="report-generator.php" download="result.xls">Download</a>Version with a "thanks" page:
If you want to display "thanks" after download, then use:
<a href="file.zip" onclick="if (event.button==0) setTimeout(function(){document.body.innerHTML='thanks!'},500)"> Start automatic download!</a>Function in that setTimeout might be more advanced and e.g. download full page via AJAX (but don't navigate away from the page — don't touch window.location or activate other links).
The point is that link to download is real, can be copied, dragged, intercepted by download accelerators, gets :visited color, doesn't re-download if page is left open after browser restart, etc.
I recently solved it by placing the following script on the page.
setTimeout(function () { window.location = 'my download url'; }, 5000)I agree that a meta-refresh would be nicer but if it doesn't work what do you do...