How to download a file with Python Django?

To download a file with Python Django, we can return a response with the download file.

For instance, we write

import os
from django.conf import settings
from django.http import HttpResponse, Http404

def download(request, path):
    file_path = os.path.join(settings.MEDIA_ROOT, path)
    if os.path.exists(file_path):
        with open(file_path, 'rb') as fh:
            response = HttpResponse(fh.read(), content_type="application/vnd.ms-excel")
            response['Content-Disposition'] = 'inline; filename=' + os.path.basename(file_path)
            return response
    raise Http404

to create the download view that gets the file from file_path if it exists.

We call open to open the file.

And the we create a HttpResponse with the Content-Disposition header set.

We set the content_type when we create the HttpResponse to the MIME type of the file downloaded.

And fh.read() has the download file content.

Then we return the response.

If the file isn’t found, then we return a 404 error with raise Http404.