Force download through js or query
dynamic create link and click it with download attribute for force download as file:
var anchor = document.createElement('a');
anchor.href = this.props.download_url;
anchor.target = '_blank';
anchor.download = this.props.file_name;
anchor.click();
Take a notice that i didn't even added it to DOM, so it's fast.
P.S download
attribute won't work with IE. But it will just open link in new tab.
http://caniuse.com/#feat=download
With the advent of HTML5 you could just use the new property download in the anchor tag.
The code will look something like
<a download="name_of_downloaded_file" href="path/to/the/download/file"> Clicking on this link will force download the file</a>
It works on firefox and chrome latest version. Should I mention that I didn't check it in IE? :P
Edited the download attribute after comment from sstur
https://caniuse.com/#feat=download