Develop Reference

How to save form data in div to a text file using HTML and Javascript [duplicate]

Is there any way I can create a text file on the client side and prompt the user to download it, without any interaction with the server?
I know I can't write directly to their machine (security and all), but can I create the file and prompt them to save it?

Simple solution for HTML5 ready browsers...
function download(filename, text) {
var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(text));
element.setAttribute('download', filename);
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);
}
form * {
display: block;
margin: 10px;
}
<form onsubmit="download(this['name'].value, this['text'].value)">
<input type="text" name="name" value="test.txt">
<textarea name="text"></textarea>
<input type="submit" value="Download">
</form>
Usage
download('test.txt', 'Hello world!');

You can use data URIs. Browser support varies; see Wikipedia. Example:
text file
The octet-stream is to force a download prompt. Otherwise, it will probably open in the browser.
For CSV, you can use:
CSV Octet
Try the jsFiddle demo.

An example for IE 10+, Firefox and Chrome (and without jQuery or any other library):
function save(filename, data) {
const blob = new Blob([data], {type: 'text/csv'});
if(window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
window.navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, filename);
}
else{
const elem = window.document.createElement('a');
elem.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
elem.download = filename;
document.body.appendChild(elem);
elem.click();
document.body.removeChild(elem);
}
}
Note that, depending on your situation, you may also want to call URL.revokeObjectURL after removing elem. According to the docs for URL.createObjectURL:
Each time you call createObjectURL(), a new object URL is created, even if you've already created one for the same object. Each of these must be released by calling URL.revokeObjectURL() when you no longer need them. Browsers will release these automatically when the document is unloaded; however, for optimal performance and memory usage, if there are safe times when you can explicitly unload them, you should do so.

All of the above example works just fine in chrome and IE, but fail in Firefox.
Please do consider appending an anchor to the body and removing it after click.
var a = window.document.createElement('a');
a.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob(['Test,Text'], {type: 'text/csv'}));
a.download = 'test.csv';
// Append anchor to body.
document.body.appendChild(a);
a.click();
// Remove anchor from body
document.body.removeChild(a);

I'm happily using FileSaver.js. Its compatibility is pretty good (IE10+ and everything else), and it's very simple to use:
var blob = new Blob(["some text"], {
type: "text/plain;charset=utf-8;",
});
saveAs(blob, "thing.txt");

Use Blob:
function download(content, mimeType, filename){
const a = document.createElement('a') // Create "a" element
const blob = new Blob([content], {type: mimeType}) // Create a blob (file-like object)
const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob) // Create an object URL from blob
a.setAttribute('href', url) // Set "a" element link
a.setAttribute('download', filename) // Set download filename
a.click() // Start downloading
}
Blob is being supported by all modern browsers.
Caniuse support table for Blob:
Here is a Fiddle
And here MDN Docs
The Blob object represents a blob, which is a file-like object of immutable, raw data; they can be read as text or binary data...

The following method works in IE11+, Firefox 25+ and Chrome 30+:
<a id="export" class="myButton" download="" href="#">export</a>
<script>
function createDownloadLink(anchorSelector, str, fileName){
if(window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
var fileData = [str];
blobObject = new Blob(fileData);
$(anchorSelector).click(function(){
window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blobObject, fileName);
});
} else {
var url = "data:text/plain;charset=utf-8," + encodeURIComponent(str);
$(anchorSelector).attr("download", fileName);
$(anchorSelector).attr("href", url);
}
}
$(function () {
var str = "hi,file";
createDownloadLink("#export",str,"file.txt");
});
</script>
See this in Action: http://jsfiddle.net/Kg7eA/
Firefox and Chrome support data URI for navigation, which allows us to create files by navigating to a data URI, while IE doesn't support it for security purposes.
On the other hand, IE has API for saving a blob, which can be used to create and download files.

We can use the URL api, in particular URL.createObjectURL(), and the Blob api to encode and download pretty much anything.
If your download is small, this works fine:
document.body.innerHTML +=
`<a id="download" download="PATTERN.json" href="${URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify("HELLO WORLD", null, 2)]))}"> Click me</a>`
download.click()
download.outerHTML = ""
If your download is huge, instead of using the DOM, a better way is to create a link element with the download parameters, and trigger a click.
Notice the link element isn't appended to the document but the click work anyway! This is possible to create a download of many hundreds of Mo this way, as the DOM is not modified (Otherwise the huge URL in the DOM can be a source of tab freeze).
const stack = {
some: "stuffs",
alot: "of them!"
}
BUTTONDOWNLOAD.onclick = (function(){
let j = document.createElement("a")
j.download = "stack_"+Date.now()+".json"
j.href = URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify(stack, null, 2)]))
j.click()
})
<button id="BUTTONDOWNLOAD">DOWNLOAD!</button>
Bonus! Download any cyclic objects, avoid the errors:
TypeError: cyclic object value (Firefox) TypeError: Converting
circular structure to JSON (Chrome and Opera) TypeError: Circular
reference in value argument not supported (Edge)
Using https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/blob/master/cycle.js
On this example, downloading the document object as json.
/* JSON.decycle */
if(typeof JSON.decycle!=="function"){JSON.decycle=function decycle(object,replacer){"use strict";var objects=new WeakMap();return(function derez(value,path){var old_path;var nu;if(replacer!==undefined){value=replacer(value)}
if(typeof value==="object"&&value!==null&&!(value instanceof Boolean)&&!(value instanceof Date)&&!(value instanceof Number)&&!(value instanceof RegExp)&&!(value instanceof String)){old_path=objects.get(value);if(old_path!==undefined){return{$ref:old_path}}
objects.set(value,path);if(Array.isArray(value)){nu=[];value.forEach(function(element,i){nu[i]=derez(element,path+"["+i+"]")})}else{nu={};Object.keys(value).forEach(function(name){nu[name]=derez(value[name],path+"["+JSON.stringify(name)+"]")})}
return nu}
return value}(object,"$"))}}
document.body.innerHTML +=
`<a id="download" download="PATTERN.json" href="${URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify(JSON.decycle(document), null, 2)]))}"></a>`
download.click()

The package js-file-download from github.com/kennethjiang/js-file-download handles edge cases for browser support:
View source to see how it uses techniques mentioned on this page.
Installation
yarn add js-file-download
npm install --save js-file-download
Usage
import fileDownload from 'js-file-download'
// fileDownload(data, filename, mime)
// mime is optional
fileDownload(data, 'filename.csv', 'text/csv')

This solution is extracted directly from tiddlywiki's (tiddlywiki.com) github repository. I have used tiddlywiki in almost all browsers and it works like a charm:
function(filename,text){
// Set up the link
var link = document.createElement("a");
link.setAttribute("target","_blank");
if(Blob !== undefined) {
var blob = new Blob([text], {type: "text/plain"});
link.setAttribute("href", URL.createObjectURL(blob));
} else {
link.setAttribute("href","data:text/plain," + encodeURIComponent(text));
}
link.setAttribute("download",filename);
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);
}
Github repo:
Download saver module

function download(filename, text) {
var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(text));
element.setAttribute('download', filename);
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);
}
// Start file download.
download("hello.txt","This is the content of my file :)");
Original article : https://ourcodeworld.com/articles/read/189/how-to-create-a-file-and-generate-a-download-with-javascript-in-the-browser-without-a-server

If you just want to convert a string to be available for download you can try this using jQuery.
$('a.download').attr('href', 'data:application/csv;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURI(data));

Solution that work on IE10:
(I needed a csv file, but it's enough to change type and filename to txt)
var csvContent=data; //here we load our csv data
var blob = new Blob([csvContent],{
type: "text/csv;charset=utf-8;"
});
navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, "filename.csv")

As mentioned before, filesaver is a great package to work with files on the client side. But, it is not do well with large files. StreamSaver.js is an alternative solution (which is pointed in FileServer.js) that can handle large files:
const fileStream = streamSaver.createWriteStream('filename.txt', size);
const writer = fileStream.getWriter();
for(var i = 0; i < 100; i++){
var uint8array = new TextEncoder("utf-8").encode("Plain Text");
writer.write(uint8array);
}
writer.close()

var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/text;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURI(data));
element.setAttribute('download', "fileName.txt");
element.click();

Based on #Rick answer which was really helpful.
You have to scape the string data if you want to share it this way:
$('a.download').attr('href', 'data:application/csv;charset=utf-8,'+ encodeURI(data));
`
Sorry I can not comment on #Rick's answer due to my current low reputation in StackOverflow.
An edit suggestion was shared and rejected.

This below function worked.
private createDownloadableCsvFile(fileName, content) {
let link = document.createElement("a");
link.download = fileName;
link.href = `data:application/octet-stream,${content}`;
return link;
}

Download file with extensions or without extensions in the example, I am using JSON. You may add your data and extensions. You may use 'MAC-Addresses.json' here, as per your wish. If you want to add an extension, add there, else, just write the file name without extensions.
let myJson = JSON.stringify(yourdata);
let element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(myJson));
element.setAttribute('download', 'MAC-Addresses.json');
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);

For me this worked perfectly, with the same filename and extension getting downloaded
<a href={"data:application/octet-stream;charset=utf-16le;base64," + file64 } download={title} >{title}</a>
'title' is the file name with extension i.e, sample.pdf, waterfall.jpg, etc..
'file64' is the base64 content something like this i.e, Ww6IDEwNDAsIFNsaWRpbmdTY2FsZUdyb3VwOiAiR3JvdXAgQiIsIE1lZGljYWxWaXNpdEZsYXRGZWU6IDM1LCBEZW50YWxQYXltZW50UGVyY2VudGFnZTogMjUsIFByb2NlZHVyZVBlcmNlbnQ6IDcwLKCFfSB7IkdyYW5kVG90YWwiOjEwNDAsIlNsaWRpbmdTY2FsZUdyb3VwIjoiR3JvdXAgQiIsIk1lZGljYWxWaXNpdEZsYXRGZWUiOjM1LCJEZW50YWxQYXltZW50UGVyY2VudGFnZSI6MjUsIlByb2NlZHVyZVBlcmNlbnQiOjcwLCJDcmVhdGVkX0J5IjoiVGVycnkgTGVlIiwiUGF0aWVudExpc3QiOlt7IlBhdGllbnRO

I would use an <a></a> tag then set the href='path'. Afterwards, place an image in between the <a> elements so that I can have a visual to see it. If you wanted to, you could create a function that will change the href so that it won't just be the same link but be dynamic.
Give the <a> tag an id as well if you want to access it with javascript.
Starting with the HTML Version:
<a href="mp3/tupac_shakur-how-do-you-want-it.mp3" download id="mp3Anchor">
<img src="some image that you want" alt="some description" width="100px" height="100px" />
</a>
Now with JavaScript:
*Create a small json file*;
const array = [
"mp3/tupac_shakur-how-do-you-want-it.mp3",
"mp3/spice_one-born-to-die.mp3",
"mp3/captain_planet_theme_song.mp3",
"mp3/tenchu-intro.mp3",
"mp3/resident_evil_nemesis-intro-theme.mp3"
];
//load this function on window
window.addEventListener("load", downloadList);
//now create a function that will change the content of the href with every click
function downloadList() {
var changeHref=document.getElementById("mp3Anchor");
var j = -1;
changeHref.addEventListener("click", ()=> {
if(j < array.length-1) {
j +=1;
changeHref.href=""+array[j];
}
else {
alert("No more content to download");
}
}

The following method works in IE10+, Edge, Opera, FF and Chrome:
const saveDownloadedData = (fileName, data) => {
if(~navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE') || ~navigator.appVersion.indexOf('Trident/')) { /* IE9-11 */
const blob = new Blob([data], { type: 'text/csv;charset=utf-8;' });
navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, fileName);
} else {
const link = document.createElement('a')
link.setAttribute('target', '_blank');
if(Blob !== undefined) {
const blob = new Blob([data], { type: 'text/plain' });
link.setAttribute('href', URL.createObjectURL(blob));
} else {
link.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain,' + encodeURIComponent(data));
}
~window.navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Edge')
&& (fileName = fileName.replace(/[&\/\\#,+$~%.'':*?<>{}]/g, '_')); /* Edge */
link.setAttribute('download', fileName);
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);
}
}
So, just call the function:
saveDownloadedData('test.txt', 'Lorem ipsum');

If the file contains text data, a technique I use is to put the text into a textarea element and have the user select it (click in textarea then ctrl-A) then copy followed by a paste to a text editor.

Export contents inside <div> as a .docx File

I am having trouble exporting the contents of a div into a .docx file. I am using FileSaver.js which can be found here: https://github.com/eligrey/FileSaver.js/.
My JavaScript Function:
function exportNote(){
var blob = new Blob([document.getElementById('editor').innerHTML], {
type: "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document;charset=utf-8"
});
saveAs(blob, "note.docx");
}
I get a download that appears to be a word file but when I open it I get the following error:
The Open XML file note.docx cannot be opened because
there are problems with the contents or the file name
might contain invalid characters (for example. /).
Details:
The file is corrupt and cannot be opened.
For graphical purposes:
The text area is the area I am trying to export into a word document which is under <div id="editor"></div>.

jsfiddle
Html
<div id="main">
this is content of div
</div>
JavaScript
function downloadInnerHtml(filename, elId) {
var elHtml = document.getElementById(elId).innerHTML;
var link = document.createElement('a');
link.setAttribute('download', filename);
link.setAttribute('href', 'data:' + 'text/doc' + ';charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(elHtml));
link.click();
}
var fileName = 'tags.doc'; // You can use the .txt extension if you want
downloadInnerHtml(fileName, 'main');

There is another solution to this problem using an open source library on github under the MIT license: https://github.com/evidenceprime/html-docx-js.
My solution:
function exportNote(contentId){
var filename = 'note.html'
var htmlDoc = document.getElementById(contentId).innerHTML;
var converted = htmlDocx.asBlob(htmlDoc);
saveAs(converted, "notes.docx");
}

Since somebody had a problem in the comments, I'm pasting in what I am actively using. The function I pasted here is darn near verbatim from this site: https://www.codexworld.com/export-html-to-word-doc-docx-using-javascript/
So credit to them. The key to this is that saving the contents of a div to a file is not a proper HTML document, and that causes Word to balk. It needs a BODY, HTML and some of that xmlns attributing. This function gets the innerHtml and wraps it with that, before doing the actual save.
Simply call Export2Word() with the name of the element that holds the content you want to save and the filename:
Export2Word('divMyContent','MyFileNameWithoutExtension');
function Export2Word(element, filename = ''){
var preHtml = "<html xmlns:o='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office' xmlns:w='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40'><head><meta charset='utf-8'><title>Export HTML To Doc</title></head><body>";
var postHtml = "</body></html>";
var content = document.getElementById(element).innerHTML;
var html = preHtml+content+postHtml;
var blob = new Blob(['\ufeff', html], {
type: 'application/msword'
});
// Specify link url
var url = 'data:application/vnd.ms-word;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(html);
// Specify file name
filename = filename?filename+'.docx':'document.docx';
// Create download link element
var downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
document.body.appendChild(downloadLink);
if(navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob ){
navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blob, filename);
}else{
// Create a link to the file
downloadLink.href = url;
// Setting the file name
downloadLink.download = filename;
//triggering the function
downloadLink.click();
}
document.body.removeChild(downloadLink);
}

exporting data to txt textarea with javascript or jquery [duplicate]

Is there any way I can create a text file on the client side and prompt the user to download it, without any interaction with the server?
I know I can't write directly to their machine (security and all), but can I create the file and prompt them to save it?

Simple solution for HTML5 ready browsers...
function download(filename, text) {
var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(text));
element.setAttribute('download', filename);
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);
}
form * {
display: block;
margin: 10px;
}
<form onsubmit="download(this['name'].value, this['text'].value)">
<input type="text" name="name" value="test.txt">
<textarea name="text"></textarea>
<input type="submit" value="Download">
</form>
Usage
download('test.txt', 'Hello world!');

You can use data URIs. Browser support varies; see Wikipedia. Example:
text file
The octet-stream is to force a download prompt. Otherwise, it will probably open in the browser.
For CSV, you can use:
CSV Octet
Try the jsFiddle demo.

An example for IE 10+, Firefox and Chrome (and without jQuery or any other library):
function save(filename, data) {
const blob = new Blob([data], {type: 'text/csv'});
if(window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
window.navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, filename);
}
else{
const elem = window.document.createElement('a');
elem.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
elem.download = filename;
document.body.appendChild(elem);
elem.click();
document.body.removeChild(elem);
}
}
Note that, depending on your situation, you may also want to call URL.revokeObjectURL after removing elem. According to the docs for URL.createObjectURL:
Each time you call createObjectURL(), a new object URL is created, even if you've already created one for the same object. Each of these must be released by calling URL.revokeObjectURL() when you no longer need them. Browsers will release these automatically when the document is unloaded; however, for optimal performance and memory usage, if there are safe times when you can explicitly unload them, you should do so.

All of the above example works just fine in chrome and IE, but fail in Firefox.
Please do consider appending an anchor to the body and removing it after click.
var a = window.document.createElement('a');
a.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob(['Test,Text'], {type: 'text/csv'}));
a.download = 'test.csv';
// Append anchor to body.
document.body.appendChild(a);
a.click();
// Remove anchor from body
document.body.removeChild(a);

I'm happily using FileSaver.js. Its compatibility is pretty good (IE10+ and everything else), and it's very simple to use:
var blob = new Blob(["some text"], {
type: "text/plain;charset=utf-8;",
});
saveAs(blob, "thing.txt");

Use Blob:
function download(content, mimeType, filename){
const a = document.createElement('a') // Create "a" element
const blob = new Blob([content], {type: mimeType}) // Create a blob (file-like object)
const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob) // Create an object URL from blob
a.setAttribute('href', url) // Set "a" element link
a.setAttribute('download', filename) // Set download filename
a.click() // Start downloading
}
Blob is being supported by all modern browsers.
Caniuse support table for Blob:
Here is a Fiddle
And here MDN Docs
The Blob object represents a blob, which is a file-like object of immutable, raw data; they can be read as text or binary data...

The following method works in IE11+, Firefox 25+ and Chrome 30+:
<a id="export" class="myButton" download="" href="#">export</a>
<script>
function createDownloadLink(anchorSelector, str, fileName){
if(window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
var fileData = [str];
blobObject = new Blob(fileData);
$(anchorSelector).click(function(){
window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blobObject, fileName);
});
} else {
var url = "data:text/plain;charset=utf-8," + encodeURIComponent(str);
$(anchorSelector).attr("download", fileName);
$(anchorSelector).attr("href", url);
}
}
$(function () {
var str = "hi,file";
createDownloadLink("#export",str,"file.txt");
});
</script>
See this in Action: http://jsfiddle.net/Kg7eA/
Firefox and Chrome support data URI for navigation, which allows us to create files by navigating to a data URI, while IE doesn't support it for security purposes.
On the other hand, IE has API for saving a blob, which can be used to create and download files.

We can use the URL api, in particular URL.createObjectURL(), and the Blob api to encode and download pretty much anything.
If your download is small, this works fine:
document.body.innerHTML +=
`<a id="download" download="PATTERN.json" href="${URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify("HELLO WORLD", null, 2)]))}"> Click me</a>`
download.click()
download.outerHTML = ""
If your download is huge, instead of using the DOM, a better way is to create a link element with the download parameters, and trigger a click.
Notice the link element isn't appended to the document but the click work anyway! This is possible to create a download of many hundreds of Mo this way, as the DOM is not modified (Otherwise the huge URL in the DOM can be a source of tab freeze).
const stack = {
some: "stuffs",
alot: "of them!"
}
BUTTONDOWNLOAD.onclick = (function(){
let j = document.createElement("a")
j.download = "stack_"+Date.now()+".json"
j.href = URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify(stack, null, 2)]))
j.click()
})
<button id="BUTTONDOWNLOAD">DOWNLOAD!</button>
Bonus! Download any cyclic objects, avoid the errors:
TypeError: cyclic object value (Firefox) TypeError: Converting
circular structure to JSON (Chrome and Opera) TypeError: Circular
reference in value argument not supported (Edge)
Using https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/blob/master/cycle.js
On this example, downloading the document object as json.
/* JSON.decycle */
if(typeof JSON.decycle!=="function"){JSON.decycle=function decycle(object,replacer){"use strict";var objects=new WeakMap();return(function derez(value,path){var old_path;var nu;if(replacer!==undefined){value=replacer(value)}
if(typeof value==="object"&&value!==null&&!(value instanceof Boolean)&&!(value instanceof Date)&&!(value instanceof Number)&&!(value instanceof RegExp)&&!(value instanceof String)){old_path=objects.get(value);if(old_path!==undefined){return{$ref:old_path}}
objects.set(value,path);if(Array.isArray(value)){nu=[];value.forEach(function(element,i){nu[i]=derez(element,path+"["+i+"]")})}else{nu={};Object.keys(value).forEach(function(name){nu[name]=derez(value[name],path+"["+JSON.stringify(name)+"]")})}
return nu}
return value}(object,"$"))}}
document.body.innerHTML +=
`<a id="download" download="PATTERN.json" href="${URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify(JSON.decycle(document), null, 2)]))}"></a>`
download.click()

The package js-file-download from github.com/kennethjiang/js-file-download handles edge cases for browser support:
View source to see how it uses techniques mentioned on this page.
Installation
yarn add js-file-download
npm install --save js-file-download
Usage
import fileDownload from 'js-file-download'
// fileDownload(data, filename, mime)
// mime is optional
fileDownload(data, 'filename.csv', 'text/csv')

This solution is extracted directly from tiddlywiki's (tiddlywiki.com) github repository. I have used tiddlywiki in almost all browsers and it works like a charm:
function(filename,text){
// Set up the link
var link = document.createElement("a");
link.setAttribute("target","_blank");
if(Blob !== undefined) {
var blob = new Blob([text], {type: "text/plain"});
link.setAttribute("href", URL.createObjectURL(blob));
} else {
link.setAttribute("href","data:text/plain," + encodeURIComponent(text));
}
link.setAttribute("download",filename);
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);
}
Github repo:
Download saver module

function download(filename, text) {
var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(text));
element.setAttribute('download', filename);
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);
}
// Start file download.
download("hello.txt","This is the content of my file :)");
Original article : https://ourcodeworld.com/articles/read/189/how-to-create-a-file-and-generate-a-download-with-javascript-in-the-browser-without-a-server

If you just want to convert a string to be available for download you can try this using jQuery.
$('a.download').attr('href', 'data:application/csv;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURI(data));

Solution that work on IE10:
(I needed a csv file, but it's enough to change type and filename to txt)
var csvContent=data; //here we load our csv data
var blob = new Blob([csvContent],{
type: "text/csv;charset=utf-8;"
});
navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, "filename.csv")

As mentioned before, filesaver is a great package to work with files on the client side. But, it is not do well with large files. StreamSaver.js is an alternative solution (which is pointed in FileServer.js) that can handle large files:
const fileStream = streamSaver.createWriteStream('filename.txt', size);
const writer = fileStream.getWriter();
for(var i = 0; i < 100; i++){
var uint8array = new TextEncoder("utf-8").encode("Plain Text");
writer.write(uint8array);
}
writer.close()

var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/text;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURI(data));
element.setAttribute('download', "fileName.txt");
element.click();

Based on #Rick answer which was really helpful.
You have to scape the string data if you want to share it this way:
$('a.download').attr('href', 'data:application/csv;charset=utf-8,'+ encodeURI(data));
`
Sorry I can not comment on #Rick's answer due to my current low reputation in StackOverflow.
An edit suggestion was shared and rejected.

This below function worked.
private createDownloadableCsvFile(fileName, content) {
let link = document.createElement("a");
link.download = fileName;
link.href = `data:application/octet-stream,${content}`;
return link;
}

Download file with extensions or without extensions in the example, I am using JSON. You may add your data and extensions. You may use 'MAC-Addresses.json' here, as per your wish. If you want to add an extension, add there, else, just write the file name without extensions.
let myJson = JSON.stringify(yourdata);
let element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(myJson));
element.setAttribute('download', 'MAC-Addresses.json');
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);

For me this worked perfectly, with the same filename and extension getting downloaded
<a href={"data:application/octet-stream;charset=utf-16le;base64," + file64 } download={title} >{title}</a>
'title' is the file name with extension i.e, sample.pdf, waterfall.jpg, etc..
'file64' is the base64 content something like this i.e, Ww6IDEwNDAsIFNsaWRpbmdTY2FsZUdyb3VwOiAiR3JvdXAgQiIsIE1lZGljYWxWaXNpdEZsYXRGZWU6IDM1LCBEZW50YWxQYXltZW50UGVyY2VudGFnZTogMjUsIFByb2NlZHVyZVBlcmNlbnQ6IDcwLKCFfSB7IkdyYW5kVG90YWwiOjEwNDAsIlNsaWRpbmdTY2FsZUdyb3VwIjoiR3JvdXAgQiIsIk1lZGljYWxWaXNpdEZsYXRGZWUiOjM1LCJEZW50YWxQYXltZW50UGVyY2VudGFnZSI6MjUsIlByb2NlZHVyZVBlcmNlbnQiOjcwLCJDcmVhdGVkX0J5IjoiVGVycnkgTGVlIiwiUGF0aWVudExpc3QiOlt7IlBhdGllbnRO

I would use an <a></a> tag then set the href='path'. Afterwards, place an image in between the <a> elements so that I can have a visual to see it. If you wanted to, you could create a function that will change the href so that it won't just be the same link but be dynamic.
Give the <a> tag an id as well if you want to access it with javascript.
Starting with the HTML Version:
<a href="mp3/tupac_shakur-how-do-you-want-it.mp3" download id="mp3Anchor">
<img src="some image that you want" alt="some description" width="100px" height="100px" />
</a>
Now with JavaScript:
*Create a small json file*;
const array = [
"mp3/tupac_shakur-how-do-you-want-it.mp3",
"mp3/spice_one-born-to-die.mp3",
"mp3/captain_planet_theme_song.mp3",
"mp3/tenchu-intro.mp3",
"mp3/resident_evil_nemesis-intro-theme.mp3"
];
//load this function on window
window.addEventListener("load", downloadList);
//now create a function that will change the content of the href with every click
function downloadList() {
var changeHref=document.getElementById("mp3Anchor");
var j = -1;
changeHref.addEventListener("click", ()=> {
if(j < array.length-1) {
j +=1;
changeHref.href=""+array[j];
}
else {
alert("No more content to download");
}
}

The following method works in IE10+, Edge, Opera, FF and Chrome:
const saveDownloadedData = (fileName, data) => {
if(~navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE') || ~navigator.appVersion.indexOf('Trident/')) { /* IE9-11 */
const blob = new Blob([data], { type: 'text/csv;charset=utf-8;' });
navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, fileName);
} else {
const link = document.createElement('a')
link.setAttribute('target', '_blank');
if(Blob !== undefined) {
const blob = new Blob([data], { type: 'text/plain' });
link.setAttribute('href', URL.createObjectURL(blob));
} else {
link.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain,' + encodeURIComponent(data));
}
~window.navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Edge')
&& (fileName = fileName.replace(/[&\/\\#,+$~%.'':*?<>{}]/g, '_')); /* Edge */
link.setAttribute('download', fileName);
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);
}
}
So, just call the function:
saveDownloadedData('test.txt', 'Lorem ipsum');

If the file contains text data, a technique I use is to put the text into a textarea element and have the user select it (click in textarea then ctrl-A) then copy followed by a paste to a text editor.

Force browser to download image files on click

I need the browser to download the image files just as it does while clicking on an Excel sheet.
Is there a way to do this using client-side programming only?
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title></title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="Scripts/jquery-1.10.2.js">
$(document).ready(function () {
$("*").click(function () {
$("p").hide();
});
});
</script>
</head>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.onclick = function (e) {
e = e || window.event;
var element = e.target || e.srcElement;
if (element.innerHTML == "Image") {
//someFunction(element.href);
var name = element.nameProp;
var address = element.href;
saveImageAs1(element.nameProp, element.href);
return false; // Prevent default action and stop event propagation
}
else
return true;
};
function saveImageAs1(name, adress) {
if (confirm('you wanna save this image?')) {
window.win = open(adress);
//response.redirect("~/testpage.html");
setTimeout('win.document.execCommand("SaveAs")', 100);
setTimeout('win.close()', 500);
}
}
</script>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<p>
Excel<br />
Image
</p>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
How should it work in case of downloading an Excel sheet (what browsers do)?

Using HTML5 you can add the attribute 'download' to your links.
<a href="/path/to/image.png" download>
Compliant browsers will then prompt to download the image with the same file name (in this example image.png).
If you specify a value for this attribute, then that will become the new filename:
<a href="/path/to/image.png" download="AwesomeImage.png">
UPDATE: As of spring 2018 this is no longer possible for cross-origin hrefs. So if you want to create <a href="https://i.imgur.com/IskAzqA.jpg" download> on a domain other than imgur.com it will not work as intended. Chrome deprecations and removals announcement

I managed to get this working in Chrome and Firefox too by appending a link to the to document.
var link = document.createElement('a');
link.href = 'images.jpg';
link.download = 'Download.jpg';
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);

Leeroy & Richard Parnaby-King:
UPDATE: As of spring 2018 this is no longer possible for cross-origin
hrefs. So if you want to create on a domain other than imgur.com it
will not work as intended. Chrome deprecations and removals
announcement
function forceDownload(url, fileName){
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open("GET", url, true);
xhr.responseType = "blob";
xhr.onload = function(){
var urlCreator = window.URL || window.webkitURL;
var imageUrl = urlCreator.createObjectURL(this.response);
var tag = document.createElement('a');
tag.href = imageUrl;
tag.download = fileName;
document.body.appendChild(tag);
tag.click();
document.body.removeChild(tag);
}
xhr.send();
}

A more modern approach using Promise and async/await :
async function toDataURL(url) {
const blob = await fetch(url).then(res => res.blob());
return URL.createObjectURL(blob);
}
then
async function download() {
const a = document.createElement("a");
a.href = await toDataURL("https://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/ninja-things-1/1772/ninja-simple-512.png");
a.download = "myImage.png";
document.body.appendChild(a);
a.click();
document.body.removeChild(a);
}
Find documentation here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API/Using_Fetch

Update Spring 2018
<a href="/path/to/image.jpg" download="FileName.jpg">
While this is still supported, as of February 2018 chrome disabled this feature for cross-origin downloading meaning this will only work if the file is located on the same domain name.
I figured out a workaround for downloading cross domain images after Chrome's new update which disabled cross domain downloading. You could modify this into a function to suit your needs. You might be able to get the image mime-type (jpeg,png,gif,etc) with some more research if you needed to. There may be a way to do something similar to this with videos as well. Hope this helps someone!
Leeroy & Richard Parnaby-King:
UPDATE: As of spring 2018 this is no longer possible for cross-origin
hrefs. So if you want to create on a domain other
than imgur.com it will not work as intended. Chrome deprecations and
removals announcement
var image = new Image();
image.crossOrigin = "anonymous";
image.src = "https://is3-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music62/v4/4b/f6/a2/4bf6a267-5a59-be4f-6947-d803849c6a7d/source/200x200bb.jpg";
// get file name - you might need to modify this if your image url doesn't contain a file extension otherwise you can set the file name manually
var fileName = image.src.split(/(\\|\/)/g).pop();
image.onload = function () {
var canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
canvas.width = this.naturalWidth; // or 'width' if you want a special/scaled size
canvas.height = this.naturalHeight; // or 'height' if you want a special/scaled size
canvas.getContext('2d').drawImage(this, 0, 0);
var blob;
// ... get as Data URI
if (image.src.indexOf(".jpg") > -1) {
blob = canvas.toDataURL("image/jpeg");
} else if (image.src.indexOf(".png") > -1) {
blob = canvas.toDataURL("image/png");
} else if (image.src.indexOf(".gif") > -1) {
blob = canvas.toDataURL("image/gif");
} else {
blob = canvas.toDataURL("image/png");
}
$("body").html("<b>Click image to download.</b><br><a download='" + fileName + "' href='" + blob + "'><img src='" + blob + "'/></a>");
};
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

var pom = document.createElement('a');
pom.setAttribute('href', 'data:application/octet-stream,' + encodeURIComponent(text));
pom.setAttribute('download', filename);
pom.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(pom);
pom.click();
document.body.removeChild(pom);

This is a general solution to your problem. But there is one very important part that the file extension should match your encoding. And of course, that content parameter of downlowadImage function should be base64 encoded string of your image.
const clearUrl = url => url.replace(/^data:image\/\w+;base64,/, '');
const downloadImage = (name, content, type) => {
var link = document.createElement('a');
link.style = 'position: fixed; left -10000px;';
link.href = `data:application/octet-stream;base64,${encodeURIComponent(content)}`;
link.download = /\.\w+/.test(name) ? name : `${name}.${type}`;
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);
}
['png', 'jpg', 'gif'].forEach(type => {
var download = document.querySelector(`#${type}`);
download.addEventListener('click', function() {
var img = document.querySelector('#img');
downloadImage('myImage', clearUrl(img.src), type);
});
});
a gif image: <image id="img" src="data:image/gif;base64,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" />
<button id="png">Download PNG</button>
<button id="jpg">Download JPG</button>
<button id="gif">Download GIF</button>

Create a function that recibe the image url and file name and call the funcion using a button.
function downloadImage(url, name){
fetch(url)
.then(resp => resp.blob())
.then(blob => {
const url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
const a = document.createElement('a');
a.style.display = 'none';
a.href = url;
// the filename you want
a.download = name;
document.body.appendChild(a);
a.click();
window.URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
})
.catch(() => alert('An error sorry'));
}
<button onclick="downloadImage('https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Stack_Overflow_logo.svg/1280px-Stack_Overflow_logo.svg.png', 'LogoStackOverflow.png')" >DOWNLOAD</button>
Codepen.io Force image download with JavaScript
vladi.codes

You can directly download this file using anchor tag without much code.Copy the snippet and paste in your text-editor and try it...!
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/SMirC-thumbsup.svg" width="200" height="200">
Download Image
</div>
</body>
</html>

In 2020 I use Blob to make local copy of image, which browser will download as a file. You can test it on this site.
(function(global) {
const next = () => document.querySelector('.search-pagination__button-text').click();
const uuid = () => Math.random().toString(36).substring(7);
const toBlob = (src) => new Promise((res) => {
const img = document.createElement('img');
const c = document.createElement("canvas");
const ctx = c.getContext("2d");
img.onload = ({target}) => {
c.width = target.naturalWidth;
c.height = target.naturalHeight;
ctx.drawImage(target, 0, 0);
c.toBlob((b) => res(b), "image/jpeg", 0.75);
};
img.crossOrigin = "";
img.src = src;
});
const save = (blob, name = 'image.png') => {
const a = document.createElement("a");
a.href = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
a.target = '_blank';
a.download = name;
a.click();
};
global.download = () => document.querySelectorAll('.search-content__gallery-results figure > img[src]').forEach(async ({src}) => save(await toBlob(src), `${uuid()}.png`));
global.next = () => next();
})(window);

Try this:
<a class="button" href="http://www.glamquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/smile.jpg" download="smile.jpg">Download image</a>

You can do
const urls = ['image.png', 'image1.png'];
urls.forEach((url) => {
window.open(url, "_blank");
});

// Pass desired URL as a param
function saveAs(uri) {
fetch(uri)
.then(res => res.blob()) // Gets the response and returns it as a blob
.then(blob => {
// Here, I use it to make an image appear on the page
let objectURL = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
let myImage = new Image();
myImage.href = blob;
myImage.download = generateFileName();
//Firefox requires the link to be in the body
document.body.appendChild(myImage);
//simulate click
myImage.click();
//remove the link when done
document.body.removeChild(myImage);
});
}
// Generate filenames for the image which is to be downloaded
function generateFileName() {
return `img${Math.floor(Math.random() * 90000) + 10000}`;
}

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function prepHref(linkElement) {
var myDiv = document.getElementById('Div_contain_image');
var myImage = myDiv.children[0];
linkElement.href = myImage.src;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="Div_contain_image"><img src="YourImage.jpg" alt='MyImage'></div>
<a href="#" onclick="prepHref(this)" download>Click here to download image</a>
</body>
</html>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<button onclick="forceDownload('http://localhost:4000/1-2-free-png-image.png','test.png')">Download</button>
<script>
function forceDownload(url, fileName){
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open("GET", url, true);
xhr.responseType = "blob";
xhr.onload = function(){
var urlCreator = window.URL || window.webkitURL;
var imageUrl = urlCreator.createObjectURL(this.response);
var tag = document.createElement('a');
tag.href = imageUrl;
tag.download = fileName;
document.body.appendChild(tag);
tag.click();
document.body.removeChild(tag);
}
xhr.send();
}
</script>
</body>
</html>

I found that
<a href="link/to/My_Image_File.jpeg" download>Download Image File</a>
did not work for me. I'm not sure why.
I have found that you can include a ?download=true parameter at the end of your link to force a download. I think I noticed this technique being used by Google Drive.
In your link, include ?download=true at the end of your href.
You can also use this technique to set the filename at the same time.
In your link, include ?download=true&filename=My_Image_File.jpeg at the end of your href.

What about using the .click() function and the tag?
(Compressed version)
<a id="downloadtag" href="examplefolder/testfile.txt" hidden download></a>
<button onclick="document.getElementById('downloadtag').click()">Download</button>
Now you can trigger it with js. It also doesn't open, as other examples, image and text files!
(js-function version)
function download(){
document.getElementById('downloadtag').click();
}
<!-- HTML -->
<button onclick="download()">Download</button>
<a id="downloadtag" href="coolimages/awsome.png" hidden download></a>

You don't need to write js to do that, simply use:
Download image
And the browser itself will automatically download the image.
If for some reason it doesn't work add the download attribute.
With this attribute you can set a name for the downloadable file:
Download image

Javascript serving a file for download [duplicate]

Is there any way I can create a text file on the client side and prompt the user to download it, without any interaction with the server?
I know I can't write directly to their machine (security and all), but can I create the file and prompt them to save it?

Simple solution for HTML5 ready browsers...
function download(filename, text) {
var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(text));
element.setAttribute('download', filename);
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);
}
form * {
display: block;
margin: 10px;
}
<form onsubmit="download(this['name'].value, this['text'].value)">
<input type="text" name="name" value="test.txt">
<textarea name="text"></textarea>
<input type="submit" value="Download">
</form>
Usage
download('test.txt', 'Hello world!');

You can use data URIs. Browser support varies; see Wikipedia. Example:
text file
The octet-stream is to force a download prompt. Otherwise, it will probably open in the browser.
For CSV, you can use:
CSV Octet
Try the jsFiddle demo.

An example for IE 10+, Firefox and Chrome (and without jQuery or any other library):
function save(filename, data) {
const blob = new Blob([data], {type: 'text/csv'});
if(window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
window.navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, filename);
}
else{
const elem = window.document.createElement('a');
elem.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
elem.download = filename;
document.body.appendChild(elem);
elem.click();
document.body.removeChild(elem);
}
}
Note that, depending on your situation, you may also want to call URL.revokeObjectURL after removing elem. According to the docs for URL.createObjectURL:
Each time you call createObjectURL(), a new object URL is created, even if you've already created one for the same object. Each of these must be released by calling URL.revokeObjectURL() when you no longer need them. Browsers will release these automatically when the document is unloaded; however, for optimal performance and memory usage, if there are safe times when you can explicitly unload them, you should do so.

All of the above example works just fine in chrome and IE, but fail in Firefox.
Please do consider appending an anchor to the body and removing it after click.
var a = window.document.createElement('a');
a.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob(['Test,Text'], {type: 'text/csv'}));
a.download = 'test.csv';
// Append anchor to body.
document.body.appendChild(a);
a.click();
// Remove anchor from body
document.body.removeChild(a);

I'm happily using FileSaver.js. Its compatibility is pretty good (IE10+ and everything else), and it's very simple to use:
var blob = new Blob(["some text"], {
type: "text/plain;charset=utf-8;",
});
saveAs(blob, "thing.txt");

Use Blob:
function download(content, mimeType, filename){
const a = document.createElement('a') // Create "a" element
const blob = new Blob([content], {type: mimeType}) // Create a blob (file-like object)
const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob) // Create an object URL from blob
a.setAttribute('href', url) // Set "a" element link
a.setAttribute('download', filename) // Set download filename
a.click() // Start downloading
}
Blob is being supported by all modern browsers.
Caniuse support table for Blob:
Here is a Fiddle
And here MDN Docs
The Blob object represents a blob, which is a file-like object of immutable, raw data; they can be read as text or binary data...

The following method works in IE11+, Firefox 25+ and Chrome 30+:
<a id="export" class="myButton" download="" href="#">export</a>
<script>
function createDownloadLink(anchorSelector, str, fileName){
if(window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
var fileData = [str];
blobObject = new Blob(fileData);
$(anchorSelector).click(function(){
window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blobObject, fileName);
});
} else {
var url = "data:text/plain;charset=utf-8," + encodeURIComponent(str);
$(anchorSelector).attr("download", fileName);
$(anchorSelector).attr("href", url);
}
}
$(function () {
var str = "hi,file";
createDownloadLink("#export",str,"file.txt");
});
</script>
See this in Action: http://jsfiddle.net/Kg7eA/
Firefox and Chrome support data URI for navigation, which allows us to create files by navigating to a data URI, while IE doesn't support it for security purposes.
On the other hand, IE has API for saving a blob, which can be used to create and download files.

We can use the URL api, in particular URL.createObjectURL(), and the Blob api to encode and download pretty much anything.
If your download is small, this works fine:
document.body.innerHTML +=
`<a id="download" download="PATTERN.json" href="${URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify("HELLO WORLD", null, 2)]))}"> Click me</a>`
download.click()
download.outerHTML = ""
If your download is huge, instead of using the DOM, a better way is to create a link element with the download parameters, and trigger a click.
Notice the link element isn't appended to the document but the click work anyway! This is possible to create a download of many hundreds of Mo this way, as the DOM is not modified (Otherwise the huge URL in the DOM can be a source of tab freeze).
const stack = {
some: "stuffs",
alot: "of them!"
}
BUTTONDOWNLOAD.onclick = (function(){
let j = document.createElement("a")
j.download = "stack_"+Date.now()+".json"
j.href = URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify(stack, null, 2)]))
j.click()
})
<button id="BUTTONDOWNLOAD">DOWNLOAD!</button>
Bonus! Download any cyclic objects, avoid the errors:
TypeError: cyclic object value (Firefox) TypeError: Converting
circular structure to JSON (Chrome and Opera) TypeError: Circular
reference in value argument not supported (Edge)
Using https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/blob/master/cycle.js
On this example, downloading the document object as json.
/* JSON.decycle */
if(typeof JSON.decycle!=="function"){JSON.decycle=function decycle(object,replacer){"use strict";var objects=new WeakMap();return(function derez(value,path){var old_path;var nu;if(replacer!==undefined){value=replacer(value)}
if(typeof value==="object"&&value!==null&&!(value instanceof Boolean)&&!(value instanceof Date)&&!(value instanceof Number)&&!(value instanceof RegExp)&&!(value instanceof String)){old_path=objects.get(value);if(old_path!==undefined){return{$ref:old_path}}
objects.set(value,path);if(Array.isArray(value)){nu=[];value.forEach(function(element,i){nu[i]=derez(element,path+"["+i+"]")})}else{nu={};Object.keys(value).forEach(function(name){nu[name]=derez(value[name],path+"["+JSON.stringify(name)+"]")})}
return nu}
return value}(object,"$"))}}
document.body.innerHTML +=
`<a id="download" download="PATTERN.json" href="${URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([JSON.stringify(JSON.decycle(document), null, 2)]))}"></a>`
download.click()

The package js-file-download from github.com/kennethjiang/js-file-download handles edge cases for browser support:
View source to see how it uses techniques mentioned on this page.
Installation
yarn add js-file-download
npm install --save js-file-download
Usage
import fileDownload from 'js-file-download'
// fileDownload(data, filename, mime)
// mime is optional
fileDownload(data, 'filename.csv', 'text/csv')

This solution is extracted directly from tiddlywiki's (tiddlywiki.com) github repository. I have used tiddlywiki in almost all browsers and it works like a charm:
function(filename,text){
// Set up the link
var link = document.createElement("a");
link.setAttribute("target","_blank");
if(Blob !== undefined) {
var blob = new Blob([text], {type: "text/plain"});
link.setAttribute("href", URL.createObjectURL(blob));
} else {
link.setAttribute("href","data:text/plain," + encodeURIComponent(text));
}
link.setAttribute("download",filename);
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);
}
Github repo:
Download saver module

function download(filename, text) {
var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(text));
element.setAttribute('download', filename);
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);
}
// Start file download.
download("hello.txt","This is the content of my file :)");
Original article : https://ourcodeworld.com/articles/read/189/how-to-create-a-file-and-generate-a-download-with-javascript-in-the-browser-without-a-server

If you just want to convert a string to be available for download you can try this using jQuery.
$('a.download').attr('href', 'data:application/csv;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURI(data));

Solution that work on IE10:
(I needed a csv file, but it's enough to change type and filename to txt)
var csvContent=data; //here we load our csv data
var blob = new Blob([csvContent],{
type: "text/csv;charset=utf-8;"
});
navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, "filename.csv")

As mentioned before, filesaver is a great package to work with files on the client side. But, it is not do well with large files. StreamSaver.js is an alternative solution (which is pointed in FileServer.js) that can handle large files:
const fileStream = streamSaver.createWriteStream('filename.txt', size);
const writer = fileStream.getWriter();
for(var i = 0; i < 100; i++){
var uint8array = new TextEncoder("utf-8").encode("Plain Text");
writer.write(uint8array);
}
writer.close()

var element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/text;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURI(data));
element.setAttribute('download', "fileName.txt");
element.click();

Based on #Rick answer which was really helpful.
You have to scape the string data if you want to share it this way:
$('a.download').attr('href', 'data:application/csv;charset=utf-8,'+ encodeURI(data));
`
Sorry I can not comment on #Rick's answer due to my current low reputation in StackOverflow.
An edit suggestion was shared and rejected.

This below function worked.
private createDownloadableCsvFile(fileName, content) {
let link = document.createElement("a");
link.download = fileName;
link.href = `data:application/octet-stream,${content}`;
return link;
}

Download file with extensions or without extensions in the example, I am using JSON. You may add your data and extensions. You may use 'MAC-Addresses.json' here, as per your wish. If you want to add an extension, add there, else, just write the file name without extensions.
let myJson = JSON.stringify(yourdata);
let element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(myJson));
element.setAttribute('download', 'MAC-Addresses.json');
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);

For me this worked perfectly, with the same filename and extension getting downloaded
<a href={"data:application/octet-stream;charset=utf-16le;base64," + file64 } download={title} >{title}</a>
'title' is the file name with extension i.e, sample.pdf, waterfall.jpg, etc..
'file64' is the base64 content something like this i.e, Ww6IDEwNDAsIFNsaWRpbmdTY2FsZUdyb3VwOiAiR3JvdXAgQiIsIE1lZGljYWxWaXNpdEZsYXRGZWU6IDM1LCBEZW50YWxQYXltZW50UGVyY2VudGFnZTogMjUsIFByb2NlZHVyZVBlcmNlbnQ6IDcwLKCFfSB7IkdyYW5kVG90YWwiOjEwNDAsIlNsaWRpbmdTY2FsZUdyb3VwIjoiR3JvdXAgQiIsIk1lZGljYWxWaXNpdEZsYXRGZWUiOjM1LCJEZW50YWxQYXltZW50UGVyY2VudGFnZSI6MjUsIlByb2NlZHVyZVBlcmNlbnQiOjcwLCJDcmVhdGVkX0J5IjoiVGVycnkgTGVlIiwiUGF0aWVudExpc3QiOlt7IlBhdGllbnRO

I would use an <a></a> tag then set the href='path'. Afterwards, place an image in between the <a> elements so that I can have a visual to see it. If you wanted to, you could create a function that will change the href so that it won't just be the same link but be dynamic.
Give the <a> tag an id as well if you want to access it with javascript.
Starting with the HTML Version:
<a href="mp3/tupac_shakur-how-do-you-want-it.mp3" download id="mp3Anchor">
<img src="some image that you want" alt="some description" width="100px" height="100px" />
</a>
Now with JavaScript:
*Create a small json file*;
const array = [
"mp3/tupac_shakur-how-do-you-want-it.mp3",
"mp3/spice_one-born-to-die.mp3",
"mp3/captain_planet_theme_song.mp3",
"mp3/tenchu-intro.mp3",
"mp3/resident_evil_nemesis-intro-theme.mp3"
];
//load this function on window
window.addEventListener("load", downloadList);
//now create a function that will change the content of the href with every click
function downloadList() {
var changeHref=document.getElementById("mp3Anchor");
var j = -1;
changeHref.addEventListener("click", ()=> {
if(j < array.length-1) {
j +=1;
changeHref.href=""+array[j];
}
else {
alert("No more content to download");
}
}

The following method works in IE10+, Edge, Opera, FF and Chrome:
const saveDownloadedData = (fileName, data) => {
if(~navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE') || ~navigator.appVersion.indexOf('Trident/')) { /* IE9-11 */
const blob = new Blob([data], { type: 'text/csv;charset=utf-8;' });
navigator.msSaveBlob(blob, fileName);
} else {
const link = document.createElement('a')
link.setAttribute('target', '_blank');
if(Blob !== undefined) {
const blob = new Blob([data], { type: 'text/plain' });
link.setAttribute('href', URL.createObjectURL(blob));
} else {
link.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain,' + encodeURIComponent(data));
}
~window.navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Edge')
&& (fileName = fileName.replace(/[&\/\\#,+$~%.'':*?<>{}]/g, '_')); /* Edge */
link.setAttribute('download', fileName);
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);
}
}
So, just call the function:
saveDownloadedData('test.txt', 'Lorem ipsum');

If the file contains text data, a technique I use is to put the text into a textarea element and have the user select it (click in textarea then ctrl-A) then copy followed by a paste to a text editor.