Force download GET request using axios

Question

I'm using vuejs 2 + axios. I need to send a get request, pass some params to server, and get a PDF as a response. Server uses Laravel.

So

axios.get(`order-results/${id}/export-pdf`, { params: { ... }})

makes successful request but it does not start force downloading, even though server returns correct headers.

I think this is a typical situation when you need to, say, form a PDF report and pass some filters to server. So how could it be accomplished?

Update

So actually I found a solution. However the same approach didn't work with axios, don't know why, that's why I used raw XHR object. So the solution is to create a blob object and user createUrlObject function. Sample example:

let xhr = new XMLHttpRequest()
xhr.open('POST', Vue.config.baseUrl + `order-results/${id}/export-pdf`, true)
xhr.setRequestHeader("Authorization", 'Bearer ' + this.token())
xhr.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
xhr.responseType = 'arraybuffer'

xhr.onload = function(e) {
  if (this.status === 200) {
    let blob = new Blob([this.response], { type:"application/pdf" })
    let link = document.createElement('a')
    link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob)
    link.download = 'Results.pdf'
    link.click()
  }
}

Important: you should have array buffer as response type

However, the same code written in axios returns PDF which is empty:

axios.post(`order-results/${id}/export-pdf`, {
  data,
  responseType: 'arraybuffer'
}).then((response) => {
  console.log(response)

  let blob = new Blob([response.data], { type: 'application/pdf' } ),
      url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob)

  window.open(url); // Mostly the same, I was just experimenting with different approaches, tried link.click, iframe and other solutions
})

Answer 1

You're getting empty PDF 'cause no data is passed to the server. You can try passing data using data object like this

  axios
    .post(`order-results/${id}/export-pdf`, {
      data: {
        firstName: 'Fred'
      },
      responseType: 'arraybuffer'
    })
    .then(response => {
      console.log(response)

      let blob = new Blob([response.data], { type: 'application/pdf' }),
        url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob)

      window.open(url) // Mostly the same, I was just experimenting with different approaches, tried link.click, iframe and other solutions
    })

By the way I gotta thank you so much for showing me the hint in order to download pdf from response. Thank ya :)

                var dates = {
                    fromDate: 20/5/2017,
                    toDate: 25/5/2017
                }

The way in which I have used is,

axios({
  method: 'post',
  url: '/reports/interval-dates',
  responseType: 'arraybuffer',
  data: dates
}).then(function(response) {
  let blob = new Blob([response.data], { type: 'application/pdf' })
  let link = document.createElement('a')
  link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob)
  link.download = 'Report.pdf'
  link.click()
})

Answer 2

Try this: It works perfectly for me with compatibility for Internet Explorer 11 (createObjectURL doesn't work on Explorer 11)

axios({
  url: 'http://vvv.dev',
  method: 'GET',
  responseType: 'blob', // important
}).then((response) => {
  if (!window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob){
    // BLOB NAVIGATOR
    const url = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([response.data]));
    const link = document.createElement('a');
    link.href = url;
    link.setAttribute('download', 'download.pdf');
    document.body.appendChild(link);
    link.click();
  }else{
    // BLOB FOR EXPLORER 11
    const url = window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(new Blob([response.data]),"download.pdf");
  }
});

https://gist.github.com/javilobo8/097c30a233786be52070986d8cdb1743

Answer 3

I don't think its possible to do this in axios or even AJAX. The file will be kept in memory, i.e. you cannot save file to disk. This is because JavaScript cannot interact with disk. That would be a serious security issue and it is blocked in all major browsers.

You can construct your URL in front-end and download it in the following way:

 var url = 'http://example.com/order-results/' + id + '/export-pdf?' + '..params..' 

 window.open(url, '_blank');

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

I tried some of the above suggested approaches but in my case the browser was sending me the popup block warning. The code described below worked for me:

axios.get(url, {responseType: 'arraybuffer'})
   .then(function (response) {
     var headers = response.headers();
     var blob = new Blob([response.data],{type:headers['content-type']});
     var link = document.createElement('a');
     link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
     link.download = "Your_file_name";
     link.click();
});

Answer 5

I had similar issues- I ended up creating link and downloading from there.

I put more details of how in the answer on another stackoverflow question.