The File Downloader action does what it says; it lets the user download a file . . . but because of the way it works it's not the easiest action to set up.
The problem is that the File Downloader action takes over the browser and so if you use it in a form On Submit event any other actions that use the brower - like the Show Thanls Message action will no longer work as expected.
The File Downloader action has two types or modes:
In the default Download mode it will show a file download dialogue, but the displayed form will remain on the screen.
In the Inline mode there will be no dialogue, the file will be automtically downloaded. How it behaves will depend on the file and browser - image files, for example, will probably display in the browser window, document files may just download leaving the form displayed.
Here is a way to set up your form so that you can show a Thank you page and download a file.
- First set up your file as normal including any On Submit actions except for the File Downloader action.
- In the Preview tab add a Page Break element followed by a Custom Element element from the Advanced Group and a Submit Button element.
- Open the Custom Element element and add the text for your Thank You page.
- Open the Submit button and change the Text to 'Download' or something similar.
- Click the Events tab and use the Add Event button at the bottom of the page to add two new events: On Thanks and On Download. Save the form so that these events will show up in the Events drop-downs.
- Drag a Show HTML action into the On Thanks event, open it and on the Advanced (multi Page) tab set the Page Number to 2 (or higher if you already have more than one page in your form) and set the Submission Event to Download.
- Drag a File Downloader action into the On Download event and configure it to download your file. I recommend that you leave the Download Type as 'Download'.
- Lastly, add a Event Loop action as the last action in the original On Submit event and configure the Target Event to > On Thanks.
Now test your form and you should find that after it is submitted you see a page with your Thanks message and a Download button that, when clicked, triggers the file download.
