I have Asp.Net MVC Web application with form. When I submit form app runs method:
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult MyMethod(MyViewModel model)
{
FileStreamResult document = CreateDocument(model);
return document;
}
And browser opens generated file (PDF) in the same tab. I'm doesn't want to open this file, instead I want to download it to disk. How to implement this action?
You will need to tell the browser that it is a download, rather than a file.
You can do this by setting 2 headers (content type and content disposition), and then writing your PDF to the response stream.
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult MyMethod(MyViewModel model)
{
HttpResponseBase response = ControllerContext.HttpContext.Response;
response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=yourpdf.pdf");
FileStreamResult document = CreateDocument(model);
//Write you document to response.OutputStream here
document.FileStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
document.FileStream.CopyTo(response.OutputStream, document.FileStream.Length);
response.Flush();
return new EmptyResult();
}
You should return a FileStreamResult (this will force a download together with the "FileDownloadName". By specifying an ActionResult as a method return value you have the flexibility of returning other stuff as well (HttpStatusCodes, View()'s, or Content()'s).
public ActionResult DownloadSomeFile()
{
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
var response = GetMyPdfAsStream(); // implement this yourself
if (response is StreamContent)
{
var responseContent = response as StreamContent;
await responseContent.CopyToAsync(ms);
byte[] file = ms.ToArray();
MemoryStream output = new MemoryStream();
output.Write(file, 0, file.Length);
output.Position = 0;
return new FileStreamResult(output, "application/pdf") { FileDownloadName = fileName };
}
else
{
return Content("Something went wrong: " + response.ReasonPhrase);
}
return null;
}
}
