Programming Blog

The following tools is in its very beta stages and works intermittently. Its so damn useful that I had to show it off now though!

I recently stumbled upon Downloadify, a client-side file generation tool based on javascript and Flash ActionScript code. A huge advantage to creating files on the client-side is that you can reduce the load on the server — especially when there’s no need for the server to get involved (the data is available within the page, etc.) Lets take a look at how we can use Downloadify.

Downloadify Usage

Downloadify.create('downloader',{
  filename: function(){
    return 'secret-message.txt'; //static file -- you could retrieve from form input box
  },
  data: function(){
    return 'MooTools FTW!'; //static content -- you could retrieve from form input box
  },
  onComplete: function(){
    alert('The file has been saved!');
  },
  onCancel: function(){
    alert('You have cancelled the saving of this file.');
  },
  onError: function(){
    alert('Error!  Damn!');
  },
  transparent: false,
  swf: 'media/downloadify.swf',
  downloadImage: 'images/download.png',
  width: 210,
  height: 55,
  transparent: true,
  append: false
});

Downloadify provides numerous options which you may pass per instance within the create method — this should look familiar to notice to advanced javascript users. What I really love about Downloadify is that it provides just the right amount of customization — events and filename/content settings. Too many javascript classes/functions try to do too much; Downloadify gets it right. My only criticism of Downloadify is it’s requirement of a 4-state sprite; it would be great if that were an option or the ActionScript could detect the height setting vs. the image file’s actual height and use the sprite if available.

MooTools Helper

/* mootools helper */
if(typeof(MooTools) != 'undefined'){
	Element.implement({
		downloadify: function(options) {
			options = $extend(Downloadify.defaultOptions,options);
			return this.store('Downloadify',Downloadify.create(this,options));
		}
	});
}

Downloadify comes with a jQuery helper but not a MooTools helper…I’ve remedied this.

Downloadify fills a need for many developers. Avoid unnecessary server load and jump on Downloadify!

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Downloadify: Client-Side File Generation Using Javascript and Flash

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