unable to download excel file using ajax jquery

Question

I have

$.ajax({
   url: 'service url',
   type: 'POST',
   async : true,
   contentType: false,
   processData: false,
   cache: false,
   success: function(data){

   },
   error: function(err){}
});

I can see the file in my Content-disposition in the chrome inspector and the response shows an encrypted value in the inspector.

However, no file is being downloaded. What is missing here?

Answer 1

Content-Disposition will influence what happens when you load a resource in a browser window.

It doesn't do anything when you are handling the response manually with JavaScript.

If you want to trigger a download from that point, you'd need to handle the response, generate a data: scheme URI and set location to it.

It would be simpler to submit a form to the destination URL in the first place (unless you don't need POST in which case you can just set location to it).