Hello Readers,

In this post we will learn how to download a file and stored it locally with Cordova Android/iOS apps.

First, we need to install cordova file transfer plugin via CLI :

$ cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-file-transfer

Example :

$scope.download = function()
{
    var pdfUrlBase = 'http://www.w3.org/2011/web-apps-ws/papers/Nitobi.pdf';
    var pdfName = pdfUrlBase.split("http://www.w3.org/2011/web-apps-ws/papers/");
    var fileSystem; 
    var statusDom;
    window.requestFileSystem(LocalFileSystem.PERSISTENT, 0, function(fs) {
        fileSystem = fs;
        statusDom = $("#statusDom");
        var ft = new FileTransfer();
        var uri = encodeURI(pdfUrlBase);
        if(device.platform == 'Android')
        {
            var downloadPath = cordova.file.externalDataDirectory+ "/demoApp/"
                               + pdfName[1];
        }
        else
        {
            var downloadPath = cordova.file.dataDirectory+ "/demoApp/" 
                               + pdfName[1]; 
        }
        $("#statusDom").html("<p>loading...</p>");
        ft.onprogress = function(progressEvent) {
            if (progressEvent.lengthComputable) 
            {
                var perc = Math.floor(progressEvent.loaded / progressEvent.total
                * 50);
                $("#statusDom").html(  "<p> downloading...</p>");
            } 
            else 
            {
                $("#statusDom").html( "<p> 100 % loaded...</p>");
            }
        };
        ft.download(uri, downloadPath, function(entry) 
        {
            $("#statusDom").html("<p> Download complete</p>");
        }, 
        function(error) {
            console.log('Crap something went wrong...'+JSON.stringify(error));  
        });
    }, 
    function(e) {
    });
}

In the above example we are using download method and onprogress property of file transfer plugin.

• download: Downloads files from server. In download method i am using two parameters uri and downloadPath. uri is URL of server to download the file which is encoded by encodeURI(). downloadPath is path where we want to store downloaded file. It can be the full path of the file on the device.
• onprogress: This property called with a progressEvent in a function. It works when new data is uploading/downloading.

So with the help of Cordova file transfer plugin we can download a file from server.

Hope this will help :)