JavaScript blob filename without link

The only way I'm aware of is the trick used by FileSaver.js:

Create a hidden tag. Set its href attribute to the blob's URL. Set its download attribute to the filename. Click on the tag.

Here is a simplified example (jsfiddle):

var saveData = (function () {
    var a = document.createElement("a");
    document.body.appendChild(a);
    a.style = "display: none";
    return function (data, fileName) {
        var json = JSON.stringify(data),
            blob = new Blob([json], {type: "octet/stream"}),
            url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
        a.href = url;
        a.download = fileName;
        a.click();
        window.URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
    };
}());

var data = { x: 42, s: "hello, world", d: new Date() },
    fileName = "my-download.json";

saveData(data, fileName);

I wrote this example just to illustrate the idea, in production code use FileSaver.js instead.

Notes

Older browsers don't support the "download" attribute, since it's part of HTML5.

Some file formats are considered insecure by the browser and the download fails. Saving JSON files with txt extension works for me.

I just wanted to expand on the accepted answer with support for Internet Explorer (most modern versions, anyways), and to tidy up the code using jQuery:

$(document).ready(function() {
    saveFile("Example.txt", "data:attachment/text", "Hello, world.");
});

function saveFile (name, type, data) {
    if (data !== null && navigator.msSaveBlob)
        return navigator.msSaveBlob(new Blob([data], { type: type }), name);
    var a = $("<a style='display: none;'/>");
    var url = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([data], {type: type}));
    a.attr("href", url);
    a.attr("download", name);
    $("body").append(a);
    a[0].click();
    window.URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
    a.remove();
}

Here is an example Fiddle. Godspeed.

Same principle as the solutions above. But I had issues with Firefox 52.0 (32 bit) where large files (>40 MBytes) are truncated at random positions. Re-scheduling the call of revokeObjectUrl() fixes this issue.

function saveFile(blob, filename) {
  if (window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
    window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blob, filename);
  } else {
    const a = document.createElement('a');
    document.body.appendChild(a);
    const url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
    a.href = url;
    a.download = filename;
    a.click();
    setTimeout(() => {
      window.URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
      document.body.removeChild(a);
    }, 0)
  }
}

jsfiddle example

Late, but since I had the same problem I add my solution:

function newFile(data, fileName) {
    var json = JSON.stringify(data);
    //IE11 support
    if (window.navigator && window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
        let blob = new Blob([json], {type: "application/json"});
        window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blob, fileName);
    } else {// other browsers
        let file = new File([json], fileName, {type: "application/json"});
        let exportUrl = URL.createObjectURL(file);
        window.location.assign(exportUrl);
        URL.revokeObjectURL(exportUrl);
    }
}

saveFileOnUserDevice = function(file){ // content: blob, name: string
        if(navigator.msSaveBlob){ // For ie and Edge
            return navigator.msSaveBlob(file.content, file.name);
        }
        else{
            let link = document.createElement('a');
            link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(file.content);
            link.download = file.name;
            document.body.appendChild(link);
            link.dispatchEvent(new MouseEvent('click', {bubbles: true, cancelable: true, view: window}));
            link.remove();
            window.URL.revokeObjectURL(link.href);
        }
    }

This is my solution. From my point of view, you can not bypass the <a>.

function export2json() { const data = { a: '111', b: '222', c: '333' }; const a = document.createElement("a"); a.href = URL.createObjectURL( new Blob([JSON.stringify(data, null, 2)], { type: "application/json" }) ); a.setAttribute("download", "data.json"); document.body.appendChild(a); a.click(); document.body.removeChild(a); } Export data to json file

Working example of a download button, to save a cat photo from an url as "cat.jpg":

HTML:

<button onclick="downloadUrl('https://i.imgur.com/AD3MbBi.jpg', 'cat.jpg')">Download</button>

JavaScript:

function downloadUrl(url, filename) {
  let xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
  xhr.open("GET", url, true);
  xhr.responseType = "blob";
  xhr.onload = function(e) {
    if (this.status == 200) {
      const blob = this.response;
      const a = document.createElement("a");
      document.body.appendChild(a);
      const blobUrl = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
      a.href = blobUrl;
      a.download = filename;
      a.click();
      setTimeout(() => {
        window.URL.revokeObjectURL(blobUrl);
        document.body.removeChild(a);
      }, 0);
    }
  };
  xhr.send();
}

window.location.assign did not work for me. it downloads fine but downloads without an extension for a CSV file on Windows platform. The following worked for me.

    var blob = new Blob([csvString], { type: 'text/csv' });
    //window.location.assign(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
    var link = window.document.createElement('a');
    link.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
    // Construct filename dynamically and set to link.download
    link.download = link.href.split('/').pop() + '.' + extension; 
    document.body.appendChild(link);
    link.click();
    document.body.removeChild(link);

this is a good easy solution for it.

function downloadBloob(blob,FileName) {
    var link = document.createElement("a"); // Or maybe get it from the current document
    link.href = blob;
    link.download = FileName;
    link.click();
}

If you want to download a pdf and using window.location is not mandatory, you can use jsPdf like this following :

// Create document
const doc = new jsPDF('l', 'px', 'a4');

// [...] Add here the jsPdf doc filling

// Launch the document downloading
doc.output('save', 'filename.pdf');