Rails 'link_to' to Download An Image Immediately Instead of Opening it in the Browser

Question

I have a link_to Rails helper that downloads a wallpaper when clicked. But the image is loading in the browser instead of being downloaded immediately.

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Answer 1

Generally, the cleanest way to do this is to set the appropriate header when sending the image:

Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=<file name.ext>

The send_file method will allow you to set this header appropriately if you're serving the file from the filesystem:

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Streaming.html#method-i-send_file

If the file is stored in your database, you can use send_data instead:

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/Streaming.html#method-i-send_data