Download a file in Angular Environment - angularjs

Question

I need to download a file from the server. The file is stored in the database. I have a cs controller that serves a file back to UI. The server GET call looks like this:
http://server/api/controllername/fileid/data
It does work when I run that link in the Browser - the file comes down and goes into the download area (Chrome). But when I send the same command from my Angualar code I dont see any file. The console reports that my request was successful (code 200), but I just dont see anything. Please let me know what code fragments to post to make it easier to help.
Thanks

Answer 1

Create a link to the resource, and don't handle it with ajax.
If you make the link open in a new tab, the tab will automatically close after it realises it was just opened to download a file in most modern browsers.

Answer 2

Try this code:
var a = document.createElement('a');
a.href = "http://server/api/controllername/fileid/data";
a.click();
You can compose the address concatenating variables and text.

Answer 3

The file probably downloads correctly as a byte[] to the calling it but that would be useless to the user - as was my problem.
In my case I needed to download a file with a complex set of parameters. This example JavaScript uses a post request and creates a form (and posts it) with any JavaScript object that you give it. This code may help if you simplified it:
private open(verb, url, data, target)
{
var form = document.createElement("form");
form.action = url;
form.method = verb;
form.target = target || "_self";
if (data) {
this.createFormParameters(form, "", data);
}
form.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(form);
form.submit();
}
private createFormParameters(form, key, value) {
// recursive algorithm to add parameters (including objects and arrays of objects) to a custom form
if (typeof value === "object") {
for (var item in value) {
if (Array.isArray(value[item])) {
for (var arrayItem in value[item]) {
this.createFormParameters(form, (item + "[" + arrayItem + "]."), value[item][arrayItem]);
}
continue;
}
var input = document.createElement("textarea");
input.name = key + item;
input.value = value[item];
form.appendChild(input);
}
}
else
{
var input = document.createElement("textarea");
input.name = key;
input.value = value;
form.appendChild(input);
}
}