[whatwg] Page displayed during/after download (<meta refresh> downloads)

[Ian Hickson]

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011, Kornel LesiÅ~Dski wrote:
> 
> There is a design (anti)pattern related to file downloads: instead of 
> linking to a file directly, websites use "Download" links pointing to a 
> page with <meta refresh="5; url=actual URL to download"> (or equivalent 
> javascript) and "Thank you!" text or further instructions how to use 
> downloaded file (e.g. install an application).
> 
> * it's hard or impossible to see or copy URL of the file (to download 
> with another application, share URL, check if file type is correct by 
> looking at the filename)
> 
> * Right-click and "Save As" on "Download now" links is unreliable and 
> sometimes results in HTML downloaded
> 
> * "Thank you!" pages saved in browsing sessions cause files to be 
> re-downloaded every time browser is restarted
> 
> * Extra pages and <meta refresh> cause unnecessary delays. "Your 
> download will start in 5 seconds" is very annoying when download itself 
> takes couple of seconds.
>
> I wish this could be replaced with something that doesn't break download 
> links.

I agree. There are a number of existing ways that this could be addressed 
today, e.g. a rel="" value that causes a link to automatically be 
downloaded (would require browser support), or script that detects when 
the user has clicked on a link for a download and replaces the page with 
the "thanks" page without interrupting the download (could be done today, 
but isn't as simple as a refresh).


> I think in terms of use-cases it can be expressed as:
> 
> 1. Show users immediate and very clear feedback that the download is 
> starting, even if browser's standard download UI is very subtle or 
> appears only after the download server responds.
> 
> 2. Allow website to show additional information about the download, 
> while the download is taking place.
> 
> e.g. Instructions what to do with the file after it is downloaded. List 
> of mirrors to use in case download is slow or fails. List of related 
> products to upsell.
> 
> <a download> and UI improvements in browsers might partially cover use 
> case #1, but I don't see an easy solution to #2, and partial improvement 
> might not be enough to replace <meta refresh> download pages.
> 
> And I'm afraid that <meta refresh> also fulfils another case:
> 
> 3. Make it harder for others to link directly to the file, force them to 
> link to a branded landing page.
> 
> I think cases #1 and #2 could be satisfied with something like:
> 
> <a post-download-href="url of page to navigate to when download starts">
> 
> And to satisfy all three cases (without breaking links), it needs to be 
> done at HTTP level, by adding HTTP header (or multipart response? or 
> attribute to Content-Disposition?) that causes both file download to 
> start and a page to be displayed at the same time.

This could be done today using Link: headers and a rel value.

I recommend approaching browser vendors about this. I don't think we need 
changes to the spec to handle this today.

I'm not sure pages would adopt a solution, either. It might be worth 
approaching high-profile sites that do this and asking them whether 
they're interested in doing it in a different way.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'