How to force a Download File prompt instead of displaying it in-browser with HTML?

Issue

 <a href="sample.pdf" target="_blank">Download</a>

If I click Download button, this target blank is opening a new window.

But I need it to prompt a dialog for saving this file. How can I achieve this?

Solution

This is something that you cannot absolutely control with HTML itself.

If the user is having a browser with PDF reading capabilities (or a plugin) and the corresponding settings to open PDF files in-browser, the PDF will open like that.

The PDF opens in a new tab simple because of your target="_blank", which has nothing to do with a download prompt.

If you are using HTML5 you can use the download attribute:

<a href="sample.pdf" download="sample.pdf">Download</a>

If you have a back-end service which you can control or you feel like fiddling with your Web Server, you can always look for setting the right Content-Disposition. See this SO question for some nice discussion on Content-Disposition.

Answered By - Kostas Rousis