How to download file in swift?

Example downloader class without Alamofire:

class Downloader {
    class func load(URL: NSURL) {
        let sessionConfig = NSURLSessionConfiguration.defaultSessionConfiguration()
        let session = NSURLSession(configuration: sessionConfig, delegate: nil, delegateQueue: nil)
        let request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: URL)
        request.HTTPMethod = "GET"
        let task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(request, completionHandler: { (data: NSData!, response: NSURLResponse!, error: NSError!) -> Void in
            if (error == nil) {
                // Success
                let statusCode = (response as NSHTTPURLResponse).statusCode
                println("Success: \(statusCode)")

                // This is your file-variable:
                // data
            }
            else {
                // Failure
                println("Failure: %@", error.localizedDescription);
            }
        })
        task.resume()
    }
}

This is how to use it in your own code:

class Foo {
    func bar() {
        if var URL = NSURL(string: "http://www.mywebsite.com/myfile.pdf") {
            Downloader.load(URL)
        }
    }
}

Swift 3 Version

Also note to download large files on disk instead instead in memory. see `downloadTask:

class Downloader {
    class func load(url: URL, to localUrl: URL, completion: @escaping () -> ()) {
        let sessionConfig = URLSessionConfiguration.default
        let session = URLSession(configuration: sessionConfig)
        let request = try! URLRequest(url: url, method: .get)

        let task = session.downloadTask(with: request) { (tempLocalUrl, response, error) in
            if let tempLocalUrl = tempLocalUrl, error == nil {
                // Success
                if let statusCode = (response as? HTTPURLResponse)?.statusCode {
                    print("Success: \(statusCode)")
                }

                do {
                    try FileManager.default.copyItem(at: tempLocalUrl, to: localUrl)
                    completion()
                } catch (let writeError) {
                    print("error writing file \(localUrl) : \(writeError)")
                }

            } else {
                print("Failure: %@", error?.localizedDescription);
            }
        }
        task.resume()
    }
}

Swift 4 and Swift 5 Version if Anyone still needs this

import Foundation

class FileDownloader {

    static func loadFileSync(url: URL, completion: @escaping (String?, Error?) -> Void)
    {
        let documentsUrl = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!

        let destinationUrl = documentsUrl.appendingPathComponent(url.lastPathComponent)

        if FileManager().fileExists(atPath: destinationUrl.path)
        {
            print("File already exists [\(destinationUrl.path)]")
            completion(destinationUrl.path, nil)
        }
        else if let dataFromURL = NSData(contentsOf: url)
        {
            if dataFromURL.write(to: destinationUrl, atomically: true)
            {
                print("file saved [\(destinationUrl.path)]")
                completion(destinationUrl.path, nil)
            }
            else
            {
                print("error saving file")
                let error = NSError(domain:"Error saving file", code:1001, userInfo:nil)
                completion(destinationUrl.path, error)
            }
        }
        else
        {
            let error = NSError(domain:"Error downloading file", code:1002, userInfo:nil)
            completion(destinationUrl.path, error)
        }
    }

    static func loadFileAsync(url: URL, completion: @escaping (String?, Error?) -> Void)
    {
        let documentsUrl =  FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!

        let destinationUrl = documentsUrl.appendingPathComponent(url.lastPathComponent)

        if FileManager().fileExists(atPath: destinationUrl.path)
        {
            print("File already exists [\(destinationUrl.path)]")
            completion(destinationUrl.path, nil)
        }
        else
        {
            let session = URLSession(configuration: URLSessionConfiguration.default, delegate: nil, delegateQueue: nil)
            var request = URLRequest(url: url)
            request.httpMethod = "GET"
            let task = session.dataTask(with: request, completionHandler:
            {
                data, response, error in
                if error == nil
                {
                    if let response = response as? HTTPURLResponse
                    {
                        if response.statusCode == 200
                        {
                            if let data = data
                            {
                                if let _ = try? data.write(to: destinationUrl, options: Data.WritingOptions.atomic)
                                {
                                    completion(destinationUrl.path, error)
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    completion(destinationUrl.path, error)
                                }
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                completion(destinationUrl.path, error)
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    completion(destinationUrl.path, error)
                }
            })
            task.resume()
        }
    }
}

Here is how to call this method :-

let url = URL(string: "http://www.filedownloader.com/mydemofile.pdf")
FileDownloader.loadFileAsync(url: url!) { (path, error) in
    print("PDF File downloaded to : \(path!)")
}