Beta Opened: View & Download PDF Files via Domain on Wix

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1

You can now create direct links to files/pdfs within your domain on Wix! I have attached a video example how-to. Here are the steps:

  1. Open the media tab and expand by clicking on “Show More”.

  2. Right click on the file you want and click “Copy URL”.

  3. Copy the last 2 parts of the URL (the filename and the path), it should look like: /ugd/eb284d_e47ea942ff9d44fc8b813f22f6337a52.pdf

  4. Prepend “/_files/” so it looks like: /_files/ugd/eb284d_e47ea942ff9d44fc8b813f22f6337a52.pdf

  5. Paste this string after your domain so that it looks like: https://www.metasiterepublic.com/_files/ugd/eb284d_e47ea942ff9d44fc8b813f22f6337a52.pdf

  6. Embed this link wherever you want :slight_smile:

One thing to note: When someone saves the file from the site it will be downloaded with the pretty filename that is defined in the editor and not the filename that is shown in the URL.

4 Likes
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Amazing! Really great step forward.

Not quite as simple as other features, it’s a shame that our domain isn’t used by default.

But great work! Keep it up!

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This is a great step forward, but it would be good to open by default on the domain path if there is a domain and the site is premium, of course.

But, great step forward and I can imagine quite a technical challenge for Wix :slight_smile:

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@noahlovell this is a beta preview. The final release will automatically use your domain so basically you will need to do nothing

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@roberthamilton this is a beta preview. The final release will automatically use your domain so basically you will need to do nothing

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@aviranm AMAZINGGGGG!

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@aviranm Awesome!

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Great feature, well done team!

Is there a way to set the PDF to automatically download instead of opening in the browser?

Thank you

9

is it only pdf?

10

Currently it is only PDF. What other file types would you like to have ?

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Currently you can’t. The behaviour (download or open) is determined by your browser’s setting.
chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments

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@aviranm That’s interesting, I’ve definitely see both methods achieved on other websites without changing my browser settings. Happy to provide an example of both if that helps.

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@_toby I didn’t say it is not possible. I’m saying, that this is what we implemented at this stage since we didn’t want to delay the release of this capability. In future versions we may also implement a setting to let you force download.
If you have other suggestions we would love to hear them.

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I just read it and I’m using it right now, thanks!

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For me, images would be great!

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@aviranm For me too. I need images.

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The current solution applies only for downloadable files only.

Media files like images and videos are working with a different technology. Wix is highly optimized to give you the best performance and resilience serving media, with global network of multiple CDN providers and multiple cloud vendors with automatic fail overs, to pick the best provider to server media as efficiently as possible in each geographic location.
Media is serving on a completely different infrastructure and requires a set of different solutions than the downloadable files (SSL certificate management, CDN and domain management, SSL termination, fallback, networking, routing and much more).
The good news is that we are already working on solutions that will enable us in the future to support images too, however this is a major infrastructure change that did not exist with cloud and CDN provides until only recently (supporting tens of millions of domains that run on Wix). We have been working with infrastructure providers to built it and already in early testing phases with few of them, but that requires time and a lot of effort to complete.

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@aviranm .shortcut

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@aviranm Great news.

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Now you can also force download !!
While the default behaviour of the download URL will respect the browser’s setting, whether to open the file in the browser or to download (save to disc).
If you’ll add a query param to the URL ?download , you will override the browser’s setting, forcing the file to save to disc.
Here is an example:
https://www.metasiterepublic.com/_files/ugd/eb284d_e47ea942ff9d44fc8b813f22f6337a52.pdf?download

@_toby :wink: