JSP – File Downloading

Last Updated : 14 Mar, 2024

In this article, we will learn how to download files from the server/file directories using JSP. The JSP code has a response header indicating that text is being returned that should be downloaded rather than displayed.

We will set the content type header to “APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM”, and it will indicate that the content is binary data.
The FileInputStream object reads the contents of a file which is specified by a file path and file name.
By using FileInputStream, we can read the contents of the file and pass it directly to the output stream.
This sends the contents of the file to the client’s browser in response.

Implementation to download File using JSP

Below is the Step-by-Step implementation to Download Files using JSP.

Step 1: Prepare sample files.

File Path: E:/examplefiles
Sample file 1: sample.pdf
Sample file 2: sample.txt

Note: Replace the filename and filepath with your filename and filepath in the code.

Step 2: Create a new folder named “filedownload”. Create index.html, download-pdf.jsp, download-txt.jsp in the “filedownload” folder and move the folder to tomcat server. Copy and paste the below code in the corresponding files.

Step 3: Start the tomcat server and navigate to the index.html in the browser.

Note: Replace the port number with your port number.

Hit the below URL in browser:

http://localhost:8080/filedownload/index.html

index.html:

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>File downloading in JSP</title>
</head>

<body>

    <h1 style="color: green;">GeeksforGeeks</h1>

    <button>
        <a href="download-pdf.jsp">Download sample.pdf file</a>
    </button>
    
    <button>
        <a href="download-txt.jsp">Download sample.txt file</a>
    </button>


</body>

</html>

In the above HTML file, it creates a webpage with two buttons. Each button links to a JSP file (download-pdf.jsp and download-txt.jsp) and it is responsible for downloading a corresponding file (sample.pdf and sample.txt).

download-pdf.jsp:

HTML

<%
  // Define filename and filepath
  String filename = "sample.pdf"; 
  String filepath = "E:\\examplefiles\\"; 
  
  // Set response to download file
  response.setContentType("APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM"); 
  response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=\"" + filename + "\""); 

  // Input stream for file reading
  java.io.FileInputStream fileInputStream = new java.io.FileInputStream(filepath + filename);
          
  // Read file content and stream it to the response output stream

  int i; 
  while ((i=fileInputStream.read()) != -1) {
    out.write(i); 
  } 

  // Close the FileInputStream to release resources
  fileInputStream.close(); 
%>

The above code downloads a file named “sample.pdf” from “E:\examplefiles\” path. It sets the response headers for file download. Creates a FileInputStream to read the file content and streaming it to the response output stream. At last, it closes the stream.

download-txt.jsp:

HTML

<%  
  // Define filename and filepath
  String filename = "sample.txt"; 
  String filepath = "E:\\examplefiles\\"; 

  // Set response to download file
  response.setContentType("APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM"); 
  response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=\"" + filename + "\""); 

  // Input stream for file reading
  java.io.FileInputStream fileInputStream = new java.io.FileInputStream(filepath + filename);

  // Read file content and stream it to the response output stream
  
  int i; 
  while ((i=fileInputStream.read()) != -1) {
    out.write(i); 
  } 

  // Close the FileInputStream to release resources
  fileInputStream.close(); 
%>

This JSP code downloads a file named “sample.txt” from “E:\examplefiles\” by setting response headers for file download. Then it creates a FileInputStream to read the file content, and streaming it to the response output stream, ensuring to close the stream at the end.