How to download powerpoint file using C#

Introduction

Recently I had to write few lines of code to download power point presentation file from one of my asp.net website. I would like to share the block of code I used for this purpose.

if (File.Exists(Server.MapPath(file)))
{			
   Response.ClearHeaders();
   Response.Clear();			
   Response.ContentType = "application/x-mspowerpoint";
   Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + file);
   Response.WriteFile(Server.MapPath(file));
   Response.Flush();
}

Here Response.ContentType should be set correctly. I have used  "application/x-mspowerpoint" for powerpoint. You need to set the correct ContentType. For example, for msword you should set application/msword, for gif image you should set image/gif, for pdf you should set <span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Verdana, Arial; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; ">application/pdf</span><span style="line-height: 18px; text-align: left; "> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">etc.</span> 

Here is the reference to set Response.ContentType :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms775147.aspx 

http://forums.asp.net/t/1159236.aspx 

Another important information: 

To have it work correctly in IE you need to write the code in Page_load event. So, for this you may create a page - Download.aspx and redirect to that page when you click download button with file information in the querystring. 

Hope it helps.