electron-dl-manager

Electron File Download Manager

A simple and easy to use file download manager for Electron applications. Designed in response to the many issues around electron-dl and provides a more robust and reliable solution for downloading files in Electron.

Use cases:

• Download files from a URL
• Get an id associated with the download to track it
• Optionally show a "Save As" dialog
• Get progress updates on the download
• Be able to cancel / pause / resume downloads
• Support multiple downloads at once

Electron 26.0.0 or later is required.

// In main process
// Not a working example, just a demonstration of the API
import { ElectronDownloadManager } from 'electron-dl-manager';

const manager = new ElectronDownloadManager();

// Start a download
const id = await manager.download({
  window: browserWindowInstance,
  url: 'https://example.com/file.zip',
  saveDialogOptions: {
    title: 'Save File',
  },
  callbacks: {
    onDownloadStarted: async ({ id, item, webContents }) => {
      // Do something with the download id
    },
    onDownloadProgress: async (...) => {},
    onDownloadCompleted: async (...) => {},
    onDownloadCancelled: async (...) => {},
    onDownloadInterrupted: async (...) => {},
    onError: (err, data) => {},
  }
});

manager.cancelDownload(id);
manager.pauseDownload(id);
manager.resumeDownload(id);

Table of contents

• Electron File Download Manager
• Installation
• Getting started
• API
  • Class: ElectronDownloadManager
    • constructor()
    • download()
      • Interface: DownloadParams
      • Interface: DownloadManagerCallbacks
    • cancelDownload()
    • pauseDownload()
    • resumeDownload()
    • getActiveDownloadCount()
    • getDownloadData()
  • Class: DownloadData
    • Properties
      • Formatting download progress
    • isDownloadInProgress()
    • isDownloadPaused()
    • isDownloadResumable()
    • isDownloadCancelled()
    • isDownloadInterrupted()
    • isDownloadCompleted()
• Mock class
• Acknowledgments

Installation

$ npm install electron-dl-manager

Getting started

You'll want to use electron-dl-manager in the main process of your Electron application where you will be handling the file downloads.

In this example, we use IPC handlers / invokers to communicate between the main and renderer processes, but you can use any IPC strategy you want.

// MainIpcHandlers.ts

import { ElectronDownloadManager } from 'electron-dl-manager';
import { ipcMain } from 'electron';

const manager = new ElectronDownloadManager();

// Renderer would invoke this handler to start a download
ipcMain.handle('download-file', async (event, args) => {
  const { url } = args;

  let downloadId
  const browserWindow = BrowserWindow.fromId(event.sender.id)

  // You *must* call manager.download() with await or 
  // you may get unexpected behavior
  downloadId = await manager.download({
    window: browserWindow,
    url,
    // If you want to download without a save as dialog
    saveAsFilename: 'file.zip',
    directory: '/directory/where/to/save',
    // If you want to download with a save as dialog
    saveDialogOptions: {
      title: 'Save File',
    },
    callbacks: {
      // item is an instance of Electron.DownloadItem
      onDownloadStarted: async ({ id, item, resolvedFilename }) => {
        // Send the download id back to the renderer along
        // with some other data
        browserWindow.webContents.invoke('download-started', {
          id,
          // The filename that the file will be saved as
          filename: resolvedFilename,
          // Get the file size to be downloaded in bytes
          totalBytes: item.getTotalBytes(),
        });
      },
      onDownloadProgress: async ({ id, item, percentCompleted }) => {
        // Send the download progress back to the renderer
        browserWindow.webContents.invoke('download-progress', {
          id,
          percentCompleted,
          // Get the number of bytes received so far
          bytesReceived: item.getReceivedBytes(),
        });
      },
      onDownloadCompleted: async ({ id, item }) => {
        // Send the download completion back to the renderer
        browserWindow.webContents.invoke('download-completed', {
          id,
          // Get the path to the file that was downloaded
          filePath: item.getSavePath(),
        });
      },
      onError: (err, data) => {
        // ... handle any errors
      }
    }
  });

  // Pause the download
  manager.pauseDownload(downloadId);
});

API

Class: ElectronDownloadManager

Manages file downloads in an Electron application.

constructor()

constructor(params: DownloadManagerConstructorParams)

interface DownloadManagerConstructorParams {
  /**
   * If defined, will log out internal debug messages. Useful for
   * troubleshooting downloads. Does not log out progress due to
   * how frequent it can be.
   */
  debugLogger?: (message: string) => void
}

download()

Starts a file download. Returns the id of the download.

download(params: DownloadParams): Promise<string>

Interface: DownloadParams

interface DownloadParams {
  /**
   * The Electron.BrowserWindow instance
   */
  window: BrowserWindow
  /**
   * The URL to download
   */
  url: string
  /**
   * The callbacks to define to listen for download events
   */
  callbacks: DownloadManagerCallbacks
  /**
   * Electron.DownloadURLOptions to pass to the downloadURL method
   *
   * @see https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/api/session#sesdownloadurlurl-options
   */
  downloadURLOptions?: Electron.DownloadURLOptions
  /**
   * If defined, will show a save dialog when the user
   * downloads a file.
   *
   * @see https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/api/dialog#dialogshowsavedialogbrowserwindow-options
   */
  saveDialogOptions?: SaveDialogOptions
  /**
   * The filename to save the file as. If not defined, the filename
   * from the server will be used.
   *
   * Only applies if saveDialogOptions is not defined.
   */
  saveAsFilename?: string
  /**
   * The directory to save the file to. Must be an absolute path.
   * @default The user's downloads directory
   */
  directory?: string
  /**
   * If true, will overwrite the file if it already exists
   * @default false
   */
  overwrite?: boolean
}

Interface: DownloadManagerCallbacks

interface DownloadManagerCallbacks {
  /**
   * When the download has started. When using a "save as" dialog,
   * this will be called after the user has selected a location.
   *
   * This will always be called first before the progress and completed events.
   */
  onDownloadStarted: (data: DownloadData) => void
  /**
   * When there is a progress update on a download. Note: This
   * may be skipped entirely in some cases, where the download
   * completes immediately. In that case, onDownloadCompleted
   * will be called instead.
   */
  onDownloadProgress: (data: DownloadData) => void
  /**
   * When the download has completed
   */
  onDownloadCompleted: (data: DownloadData) => void
  /**
   * When the download has been cancelled. Also called if the user cancels
   * from the save as dialog.
   */
  onDownloadCancelled: (data: DownloadData) => void
  /**
   * When the download has been interrupted. This could be due to a bad
   * connection, the server going down, etc.
   */
  onDownloadInterrupted: (data: DownloadData) => void
  /**
   * When an error has been encountered.
   * Note: The signature is (error, <maybe some data>).
   */
  onError: (error: Error, data?: DownloadData) => void
}

cancelDownload()

Cancels a download.

cancelDownload(id: string): void

pauseDownload()

Pauses a download.

pauseDownload(id: string): void

resumeDownload()

Resumes a download.

resumeDownload(id: string): void

getActiveDownloadCount()

Returns the number of active downloads.

getActiveDownloadCount(): number

getDownloadData()

Returns the download data for a download.

getDownloadData(id: string): DownloadData

Class: DownloadData

Data returned in the callbacks for a download.

Properties

class DownloadData {
  /**
   * Generated id for the download
   */
  id: string
  /**
   * The Electron.DownloadItem. Use this to grab the filename, path, etc.
   * @see https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/api/download-item
   */
  item: DownloadItem
  /**
   * The Electron.WebContents
   * @see https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/api/web-contents
   */
  webContents: WebContents
  /**
   * The Electron.Event
   * @see https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/api/event
   */
  event: Event
  /**
   * The name of the file that is being saved to the user's computer.
   * Recommended over Item.getFilename() as it may be inaccurate when using the save as dialog.
   */
  resolvedFilename: string
  /**
   * If true, the download was cancelled from the save as dialog
   */
  cancelledFromSaveAsDialog?: boolean
  /**
   * The percentage of the download that has been completed
   */
  percentCompleted: number
  /**
   * The download rate in bytes per second.
   */
  downloadRateBytesPerSecond: number
  /**
   * The estimated time remaining in seconds.
   */
  estimatedTimeRemainingSeconds: number
  /**
   * If the download was interrupted, the state in which it was interrupted from
   */
  interruptedVia?: 'in-progress' | 'completed'
}

Formatting download progress

You can use the libraries bytes and dayjs to format the download progress.

$ npm install bytes dayjs
$ npm install @types/bytes --save-dev

import bytes from 'bytes'
import dayjs from 'dayjs'
import relativeTime from 'dayjs/plugin/relativeTime';
import duration from 'dayjs/plugin/duration';

dayjs.extend(relativeTime);
dayjs.extend(duration);

const downloadData = manager.getDownloadData(id); // or DataItem from the callbacks

// Will return something like 1.2 MB/s
const formattedDownloadRate = bytes(downloadData.downloadRateBytesPerSecond, { unitSeparator: ' ' }) + '/s'

// Will return something like "in a few seconds"
const formattedEstimatedTimeRemaining = dayjs.duration(downloadData.estimatedTimeRemainingSeconds, 'seconds').humanize(true)

isDownloadInProgress()

Returns true if the download is in progress.

isDownloadInProgress(): boolean

isDownloadPaused()

Returns true if the download is paused.

isDownloadPaused(): boolean

isDownloadResumable()

Returns true if the download is resumable.

isDownloadResumable(): boolean

isDownloadCancelled()

Returns true if the download is cancelled.

isDownloadCancelled(): boolean

isDownloadInterrupted()

Returns true if the download is interrupted.

isDownloadInterrupted(): boolean

isDownloadCompleted()

Returns true if the download is completed.

isDownloadCompleted(): boolean

Mock class

If you need to mock out ElectronDownloadManager in your tests, you can use the ElectronDownloadManagerMock class.

import { ElectronDownloadManagerMock } from 'electron-dl-manager'

Acknowledgments

This code uses small portions from electron-dl and is noted in the code where it is used.

electron-dl is licensed under the MIT License and is maintained by Sindre Sorhus [e-mail] (https://sindresorhus.com).

Changelog

3.2.0 (2024-08-04)

• Fix issues around starting multiple downloads at the same time.
• No longer need to use await before a download call when multiple downloads are started at the same time.