File Downloads

File downloads in Livewire work much the same as in Laravel itself. Typically, you can use any Laravel download utility inside a Livewire component, and it should work as expected.

However, behind the scenes, file downloads are handled differently than in a standard Laravel application. When using Livewire, the file's contents are Base64 encoded, sent to the frontend, and decoded back into binary to be downloaded directly from the client.

#Basic usage

Triggering a file download in Livewire is as simple as returning a standard Laravel download response.

Below is an example of a ShowInvoice component that contains a "Download" button to download the invoice PDF:

<?php
 
namespace App\Livewire;
 
use Livewire\Component;
use App\Models\Invoice;
 
class ShowInvoice extends Component
{
    public Invoice $invoice;
 
    public function mount(Invoice $invoice)
    {
        $this->invoice = $invoice;
    }
 
    public function download()
    {
        return response()->download( 
            $this->invoice->file_path, 'invoice.pdf'
        );
    }
 
    public function render()
    {
        return view('livewire.show-invoice');
    }
}

<div>
    <h1>{{ $invoice->title }}</h1>
 
    <span>{{ $invoice->date }}</span>
    <span>{{ $invoice->amount }}</span>
 
    <button type="button" wire:click="download">Download</button> 
</div>

Just like in a Laravel controller, you can also use the Storage facade to initiate downloads:

public function download()
{
    return Storage::disk('invoices')->download('invoice.csv');
}

#Streaming downloads

Livewire can also stream downloads; however, they aren't truly streamed. The download isn't triggered until the file's contents are collected and delivered to the browser:

public function download()
{
    return response()->streamDownload(function () {
        echo '...'; // Echo download contents directly...
    }, 'invoice.pdf');
}

#Testing file downloads

Livewire also provides a ->assertFileDownloaded() method to easily test that a file was downloaded with a given name:

use App\Models\Invoice;
 
/** @test */
public function can_download_invoice()
{
    $invoice = Invoice::factory();
 
    Livewire::test(ShowInvoice::class)
        ->call('download')
        ->assertFileDownloaded('invoice.pdf');
}

You can also test to ensure a file was not downloaded using the ->assertNoFileDownloaded() method:

use App\Models\Invoice;
 
/** @test */
public function does_not_download_invoice_if_unauthorised()
{
    $invoice = Invoice::factory();
 
    Livewire::test(ShowInvoice::class)
        ->call('download')
        ->assertNoFileDownloaded();
}