How to download a file from webapp folder using JSF 1.1?

Question

I am using JSF 1.1. On click of a button I need to download a file from webapp/pdf directory. How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

Just link to its URL directly. Both the server and the browser will do the necessary magic.

The desired HTML output should look like this:

<a href="/yourcontext/pdf/filename.pdf">
    Download PDF
<a>

The JSF 1.1 on JSP way to generate this HTML is:

<h:outputLink value="${pageContext.request.contextPath}/pdf/filename.pdf">
    <h:outputText value="Download PDF" />
</h:outputLink>

Or, when you're using JSF 1.1 on Facelets:

<h:outputLink value="#{request.contextPath}/pdf/filename.pdf">
    Download PDF
</h:outputLink>

If necessary, throw in some CSS to make it look like a "button".