How do I open a Save As Dialog on a windows machine from a Chrome Extension?

Question

Is it possible using Javascript and Html to open a Save As Dialog from a chrome extension on a Windows OS machine?

I have tried the following without luck:

1. The chrome extension's fileBrowserHandler - It works only on Chrome OS
2. HTML5 input with type= file - It opens the Open dialog but not save
3. Anchor tag with download attribute (Save) - It downloads the file directly to the browser's download setting. If the browser's setting Ask Where to save the file is set, it opens the Save dialog. Is there a way to force the browser setting programatically from the chrome extension?

Please let me know if there are any other ways to get around this. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

To force the Save Dialog from a chrome extension, use chrome extension's download api and set the saveAs options flag to true. Something like this:

chrome.downloads.download({
    url: window.location.href + '/' + fileName,
    filename: fileName,
    saveAs: true
}, function (downloadId) {
    console.log(downloadId);
});

Answer 2

Try using the FileSaver HTML5 polyfill. It allows you to save anything to a file from JavaScript:

var blob = new Blob(["Hello, world!"], {type: "text/plain;charset=utf-8"});
saveAs(blob, "hello world.txt");