Download File from FileResult without saving to disk

Question

I am using MVC 4.

I have a method in my controller which generates a CSV file on demand and I want this file to be then downloaded by the user without the need of saving it to the disk at the server side. So I am passing a MemoryStream on the File() object to avoid having to firstly save file to disk and later give him the path for download.

Controller Method:

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult GenerateCsv(string data)


    var sb = new StringBuilder();
    sb = GetCsvReportToString(data);

    var stream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sb.ToString()));

    return this.File(stream, "text/csv", "ReportCsv.csv");
}

sb (StringBuilder) has the correct data, as I have debugged it and confirmed it.

my javascript code:

window.open(generateFileLink + '?data=' + dataToSend, '_blank');

The window gets in fact opened, the download dialog appears but with an error, saying that it cannot be downloaded from localhost:

enter image description here

The name is different in the download "ReportToCsv" because I didn't use real names for methods in my question, but doesn't matter.

Can anyone assist?

If you want to black out the "ServerFilesCompare" part of the file name you'll need to do it on the dialog in the background as well. — , May 09 '14 at 14:03
You don't need to put the Bytes[] into a MemoryStream. The File Object can Take the Byte Array as it is. And shouldn't it be HttpPost instead of HttpGet? — Ralf, May 09 '14 at 14:12
@DaveParsons that in fact really helped me solving my problem :) — filipehd, May 09 '14 at 14:19
@Ralf it should be a Get, because i am passing the parameter through the URL. So it's a GET. Well I don't NEED to, but that doesn't really make a difference here :( — filipehd, May 09 '14 at 14:21
Have you tried this suggestion by adding Cache-Control header - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16846054/asp-net-mvc-3-file-download-not-working-in-ie8 — ramiramilu, May 09 '14 at 14:40
@filipehd: if you have solved the problem it would be good if you could share the answer with us all - if you feel it's too trivial etc then you can always delete the question. — , May 09 '14 at 15:26
@DaveParsons I was being ironic... I was just commenting that your comment was just useless and didn't help in anything. I asked the community for help and you answered me that I forgot to black out the ServerFilesCompare... — filipehd, May 09 '14 at 15:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 09 '14 at 17:22

0

Try this

var sb = new StringBuilder();
            sb=GetCsvReportToString(data);
            return File(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sb.ToString()), System.Net.Mime.MediaTypeNames.Application.Octet, "ReportCsv.csv");

answered May 09 '14 at 17:22

malkam

2,235
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Didn't make any difference. Still getting the same error. I will try @ramiramilu solution. It may be in fact a problem with the Headers because my solution works on Chrome – filipehd May 12 '14 at 11:19
@filipehd:Actually above code worked fine with IE 10 in my system. Not sure why you are getting error. – malkam May 12 '14 at 11:52
the error only occurs in IE versions 6-8. So it both my code and yours work on IE10 :) – filipehd May 12 '14 at 13:57

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:09

0

The answer to this question can be found here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11267754/1417487

It's a regarding the headers of cache, for IE versions 6-8.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:09

Community

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answered May 12 '14 at 13:58

filipehd

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Download File from FileResult without saving to disk

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