How to create a download file in the Google Chrome extension?

Question

I want to create a CSV file as a result of user interaction, and then ask the user to download it. How can i do this?

I don't think this is possible in direct JS, but maybe Chrome gives me some elevated privileges?

Answer 1

Now you can use the HTML5 File API to upload the file. It is still under development, but you can use BlobBuilder and redirect your usage to download this file:

var bb = new BlobBuilder(); bb.append(csvContents); var blob = bb.getBlob(); location.href = window.webkitURL.createObjectURL(blob); 

For more information on the File API, HTML5Rocks has an excellent tutorial:

http://www.html5rocks.com/tutorials/file/filesystem/

Answer 2

Chrome does not provide any help with this, but I think you should be able to run the save file dialog using the downloadify js library, which uses the flash component backstage.

Answer 3

I needed to make the same newly created file and ensure that it downloads in the Chrome extension. Here you see a code snippet using ES6 and recommended methods:

 let docContent = ... /* your content */; let doc = URL.createObjectURL( new Blob([docContent], {type: 'application/octet-binary'}) ); chrome.downloads.download({ url: doc, filename: filename, conflictAction: 'overwrite', saveAs: true }); 

You must also declare the correct privilege in manifest.json :

 "permissions" : ["downloads"]