I have a page that allows the user to download a dynamically-generated file. It takes a long time to generate, so I'd like to show a "waiting" indicator. The problem is, I can't figure out how to detect when the browser has received the file so that I can hide the indicator.
I'm requesting a hidden form, which POSTs to the server, and targets a hidden iframe for its results. This is, so I don't replace the entire browser window with the result. I listen for a "load" event on the iframe, hoping that it will fire when the download is complete.
I return a "Content-Disposition: attachment
" header with the file, which causes the browser to show the "Save" dialog. But the browser doesn't fire a "load" event in the iframe.
One approach I tried is using a multi-part
response. So it would send an empty HTML file, as well as the attached downloadable file.
For example:
Content-type: multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary="abcde"
--abcde
Content-type: text/html
--abcde
Content-type: application/vnd.fdf
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=foo.fdf
file-content
--abcde
This works in Firefox; it receives the empty HTML file, fires the "load" event, and then shows the "Save" dialog for the downloadable file. But it fails on Internet Explorer and Safari; Internet Explorer fires the "load" event, but it doesn't download the file, and Safari downloads the file (with the wrong name and content-type) and doesn't fire the "load" event.
A different approach might be to call to start the file creation, poll the server until it's ready, and then download the already-created file. But I'd rather avoid creating temporary files on the server.
What should I do?
One possible solution uses JavaScript on the client.
The client algorithm:
The server algorithm:
Client source code (JavaScript):
function getCookie( name ) {
var parts = document.cookie.split(name + "=");
if (parts.length == 2) return parts.pop().split(";").shift();
}
function expireCookie( cName ) {
document.cookie =
encodeURIComponent(cName) + "=deleted; expires=" + new Date( 0 ).toUTCString();
}
function setCursor( docStyle, buttonStyle ) {
document.getElementById( "doc" ).style.cursor = docStyle;
document.getElementById( "button-id" ).style.cursor = buttonStyle;
}
function setFormToken() {
var downloadToken = new Date().getTime();
document.getElementById( "downloadToken" ).value = downloadToken;
return downloadToken;
}
var downloadTimer;
var attempts = 30;
// Prevents double-submits by waiting for a cookie from the server.
function blockResubmit() {
var downloadToken = setFormToken();
setCursor( "wait", "wait" );
downloadTimer = window.setInterval( function() {
var token = getCookie( "downloadToken" );
if( (token == downloadToken) || (attempts == 0) ) {
unblockSubmit();
}
attempts--;
}, 1000 );
}
function unblockSubmit() {
setCursor( "auto", "pointer" );
window.clearInterval( downloadTimer );
expireCookie( "downloadToken" );
attempts = 30;
}
Example server code (PHP):
$TOKEN = "downloadToken";
// Sets a cookie so that when the download begins the browser can
// unblock the submit button (thus helping to prevent multiple clicks).
// The false parameter allows the cookie to be exposed to JavaScript.
$this->setCookieToken( $TOKEN, $_GET[ $TOKEN ], false );
$result = $this->sendFile();
Where:
public function setCookieToken(
$cookieName, $cookieValue, $httpOnly = true, $secure = false ) {
// See: http://stackoverflow.com/a/1459794/59087
// See: http://shiflett.org/blog/2006/mar/server-name-versus-http-host
// See: http://stackoverflow.com/a/3290474/59087
setcookie(
$cookieName,
$cookieValue,
2147483647, // expires January 1, 2038
"/", // your path
$_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"], // your domain
$secure, // Use true over HTTPS
$httpOnly // Set true for $AUTH_COOKIE_NAME
);
}