How to download a file from server without user interaction in flex 4 or flex 4.5?

Question

The code flow is as follows:

user clicks 'download details' button on the page -> on button click handler a call to a RPC method is made using s:CallResponder -> RPC method generates and returns a URL from where to download the file -> the success event handler of the CallResponder gets the url where FileRefrence.download() is used to download the file but throws following error:-

Error: Error #2176: Certain actions, such as those that display a pop-up window, may only be invoked upon user interaction, for example by a mouse click or button press. at flash.net::FileReference/download()

Code is follows:

<fx:Script>
    <![CDATA[            

        import mx.rpc.CallResponder;
        import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
        import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;

        protected function downloadButtonClickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void 
        { 
                var web_service:IWeb_service = Web_service.getInstance(); 
                getDetails.token = web_service.getURLDetails();
        } 

        public function onGetDetailsResult(event:ResultEvent):void
        {

            var response:URLResponse = event.result as URLResponse;
            if(response != null && response.url != null)
            { 
                var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(response.url);
                fileReference.download(request, "test.html");
            }
        }

        public function onGetDetailsFault(event:FaultEvent):void
        {
            Alert.show("Error in downloading details");
        }
    ]]>    
</fx:Script>

<fx:Declarations>  
    <net:FileReference id="fileReference" />
    <s:CallResponder id="getDetails" result="onGetDetailsResult(event)" fault="onGetDetailsFault(event)"/>

</fx:Declarations>
<s:HGroup width="100%" height="100%">

       <s:Button label="Download Details" id="downloadButton" 
                          click="downloadButtonClickHandler(event)" /> 
</s:HGroup>

Is there any other way of achieving this as File FileReference needs a user interaction which is not happening int his case?

Is it unfeasible to load the download url before the user clicks download? — kreek, Sep 27 '11 at 21:55
You could download the file before the user actually needs to specify where to download it locally. Alas, you can't just save the file anywhere you want to on the user's computer as this would be a major security flaw. — J_A_X, Sep 28 '11 at 00:27

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 03 '11 at 10:51

I don't think there is a way to download the file via FileReference, due to security restriction, if you don't have the file available beforehand.

As far as I'm aware there are two options to handle this scenario:

Trigger FileReference download via separate button click (e.g. Alert dialog);
Initiate browser's standard download via navigateToURL(myURLRequest, "_self");

Hope this helps.

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 29 '13 at 14:11

0

Invoke web_service.getURLDetails() before the user clicks on download button (for example after the flex application is created). You can check in the downloadButtonClickHandler method if the url was loaded, or you can start with a disabled button and change the status to enabled after the url was loaded.

edited Jan 29 '13 at 14:11

Bart

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answered Sep 28 '11 at 09:19

Cornel Creanga

5,311
1
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28

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 29 '13 at 14:04

0

var url:String = "test.xls";

var fileReference:FileReference = new FileReference; 
var urlRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
navigateToURL(urlRequest,"_new");

fileReference.download(urlRequest);

edited Jan 29 '13 at 14:04

Bart

2,062
15
19

answered Oct 17 '11 at 13:06

seyfettin

1

How to download a file from server without user interaction in flex 4 or flex 4.5?

3 Answers3