CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javajavascriptdownloadfrontendbackend
Matt
Matt

Reputation: 3557

Creating a file for download (client side vs. backend)

I need to allow for csv-file downloads on my page and I was going to try ngCsv (from Angular) but for browser support this seems fairly limited. I've seen quite a few examples of this being done with vanilla Javascript. And after a discussion with a colleague of "backend vs. frontend" I'm feeling more and more unsure of what to do.

Are there any true optimization/efficiency reasons why I should avoid doing this on the client side (assuming the files are no more than 100MB each download)?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3112

Answers (1)

user3886234
user3886234

Reputation:

Are there any true optimization/efficiency reasons why I should avoid doing this on the client side (assuming the files are no more than 100MB each download)?

If the data on the .csv would be the same for each user, and only updated every now and then, I would suggest you have your server create / update a static .csv. It wouldn't be resource-intensive, and you wouldn't have to worry about browser compatibility / user resources.

If, however, the data you need to create a .csv for is different on a per-user basis, then you should consider creating the file client-side. If you can help it, you don't want your server having to dynamically generate 100MB .csv files each time a user clicks the link.

You could write a script that only generates the .csv client-side if the browser is not mobile and there is web-worker support. If either of those conditions are not met, you could fall back to having your server do it.

Ultimately, your answer is going to really depend on the requirements / context of this project. Try to cache the results where possible, and use common sense. Good luck :)

Upvotes: 1

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