Download attribute not working in Firefox

Question

I'm trying to let the user download some data as a CSV (text) file, using Javascript and the HTML5 Download attribute (http://caniuse.com/#feat=download).

The data is formed in an array, and then added to a new Blob object.

It works perfectly in Chrome and Opera, but does not work at all in Firefox.

Original example I am attempting to copy: http://blog.eliacontini.info/post/79860720828/export-to-csv-using-javascript-the-download-attribute

Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/8wos7cf8/5/

Javascript:

$('#downloadButton').click(function () {
// some data to export
var data = [{
    "title": "Book title 1",
    "author": "Name1 Surname1"
}, {
    "title": "Book title 2",
    "author": "Name2 Surname2"
}, {
    "title": "Book title 3",
    "author": "Name3 Surname3"
}, {
    "title": "Book title 4",
    "author": "Name4 Surname4"
}];

// prepare CSV data
var csvData = new Array();
csvData.push('"Book title","Author"');
data.forEach(function (item, index, array) {
    csvData.push('"' + item.title + '","' + item.author + '"');
});

// download stuff
var fileName = "data.csv";
var buffer = csvData.join("\n");
var blob = new Blob([buffer], {
    "type": "text/csv;charset=utf8;"
});
var link = document.createElement("a");

if (link.download !== undefined) { // feature detection
    // Browsers that support HTML5 download attribute
    link.setAttribute("href", window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
    link.setAttribute("download", fileName);
    link.click();
} else {
    alert('CSV export only works in Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.');
}
});

HTML:

<div class="toggle-button" id="downloadButton"><span>Export to CSV</span></div>

When I add an alert with:

alert(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));

I get this result in Firefox:

...and this result in Chrome/Opera:

So it seems like it omits the URL path in Firefox for some reason.

Washwoman

Regarding mpeg and probably other files, if the Firefox player opens, it's because your need in about:config the setting media.play-stand-alone=false. It may be media.windows-media-foundation.enabled on Windows. – Kalat

Answer 1

You might try adding the element to the DOM before triggering the click:

document.body.appendChild(link);
link.click();
document.body.removeChild(link);

This worked for me in Firefox 34

jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/8wos7cf8/7/

Breskin

Thank you jmfolds . This is how to get the 'link' attribute of the 'a' element working in Firefox. Very helpful! – Bromism

This worked great for FF but broke IE... it makes my browser go to /true. May have to adjust this to check for IE – Roulers

@MattHintzke - HTML5 Download attribute is not supported in IE or Safari. caniuse.com/#feat=download – Washwoman

Thanks a lot. Now works for me in Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Opera. – Cesaro

i dont need to call appendChild, removeChild on Chrome, but it is necessary on Firefox – Shrunk

Fixed my issue with Firefox compatibility. – Anderton