I have faced the similar issue for downloading files such as .pdf, .xls, .xlsx etc through Ajax.
Its a fact that we cant download files through Ajax, even though i came up with a solution which downloads files through Ajax like.
You can use jquery.fileDownload - A jQuery File Download Plugin for Ajax like, feature rich file downloads.
Demo Working
I am using Spring at the server side
@RequestMapping(value = "exportXLS", method = RequestMethod.POST, produces = APP_JSON)
@ResponseBody
public void getCSV(final HttpServletResponse response, @RequestParam(value = "empId", required = true) final String empId) throws IOException, Exception
{
final byte[] csv = ExportXLSUtil.getFileBytes(empId); // get the file bytes
final OutputStream output = getOutputStream(response);
response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=documents_" + new DateTime() + ".xls");
response.setContentType(CONTENT_TYPE);
response.setContentLength(csv.length);
write(output, csv);
}
At the client side, I am using AngularJS
$downloadXLS = function(id)
{
$.fileDownload('/user/exportXLS',
{
httpMethod : "POST",
data : {
empId : id
}
}).done(function(e, response)
{
// success
}).fail(function(e, response)
{
// failure
});
}
Download Link - jquery.fileDownload.js