Verifying download box pop up using selenium - unit-testing

Question

I have a website where I am using selenium for integration testing.
I have link there that is generated using multiple variables from page.
I would like to verify the download pop up box is displaying if at all possible, when i am simulating click on link to download the file.
I know i can have JsUnit that will do that for me.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Selenium is lousy when working with downloads. Clicking the link will get you into trouble.
You could, however, make a request using HttpURLConnection, Apache HttpComponents (or maybe just a file get through URL) for the link specified and assert a 200 OK response. Or try to get the file - this is my favourite tool for this with Selenium.

Answer 2

Thnx to Slanec i have took up your examples.
Ok after investigation I have decided that best solution will be
something along this line.
public int GetFileLenghtFromUrlLocation(string location)
{
int len = 0;
int timeoutInSeconds = 5;
// paranoid check for null value
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(location)) return 0;
// Create a web request to the URL
HttpWebRequest myRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(location);
myRequest.Timeout = timeoutInSeconds * 1000;
myRequest.AddRange(1024);
try
{
// Get the web response
HttpWebResponse myResponse = (HttpWebResponse)myRequest.GetResponse();
// Make sure the response is valid
if (HttpStatusCode.OK == myResponse.StatusCode)
{
// Open the response stream
using (Stream myResponseStream = myResponse.GetResponseStream())
{
if (myResponseStream == null) return 0;
using (StreamReader rdr = new StreamReader(myResponseStream))
{
len = rdr.ReadToEnd().Length;
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception err)
{
throw new Exception("Error saving file from URL:" + err.Message, err);
}
return len;
}