How to download a file in Android

Today in this post, I am going to share the code that I use in my android applications to support downloading of file. There are many ways you can use to download a file. For example you can use Async task and read the file stream to save it in device storage, you could also use a Service to download the file. But in my example I will show you the code that uses DownloadManager class.

The code sample using DownloadManager class is as follows:

	@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB)
	private void downloadFile(Context context, String file, String title, String subtitle) {
	DownloadManager.Request request = new DownloadManager.Request(Uri.parse(file));
	request.setTitle(title);
	request.setDescription(subtitle);
	//request.setAllowedNetworkTypes(DownloadManager.Request.NETWORK_WIFI); //to allow download while using WIFI only
	request.allowScanningByMediaScanner();
	request.setNotificationVisibility(DownloadManager.Request.VISIBILITY_VISIBLE_NOTIFY_COMPLETED);
	String nameOfFile = URLUtil.guessFileName(file, null, MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(file));
	request.setDestinationInExternalPublicDir(Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS, nameOfFile);
	DownloadManager manager = (DownloadManager) context.getSystemService(Context.DOWNLOAD_SERVICE);
	manager.enqueue(request);
	}

view raw download-file-in-android.txt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Now to use this function

downloadFile(context, "http://i.imgur.com/DvpvklR.png", 
"File download",
"File is being downloaded...");

Hope this helps you.