File Download in ASP>NET

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Hello,

I am trying to make the following solution to work:
User comes to the aspx page and inserts dokument ID in textbox. Then this ID is used to generate txt file from database. User should be prompted to download the file.

I have implemented this with simple postback, but when I tried to use ajax with WebMethod it's not popping up user to download the file. In other words - the following is no longer working:

C#

HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "txt/application";
            HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Txt_document_title.txt");
            HttpContext.Current.Response.OutputStream.Write(Txt_Stream.GetBuffer(), 0, Txt_Stream.GetBuffer().Length);

I read on the documentation page that it wont work with WebMethod, but not really sure what would be the best practice here. Also - the file should not be saved anywhere due to security reasons and should go directly to user.

Thanks!

Posted 14-Mar-15 22:30pm

JackTheGreatest

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Arkadeep De 15-Mar-15 4:36am

whenever you are downloading something from the site the page should be posting back. what ever you have tried previously tried that within UpdatePanel with the download button in trigger.

JackTheGreatest 15-Mar-15 5:30am

But then how do I know, from the client perspective, if my request is still loading?
For example I press the button and it takes ~10 seconds to generate the document and the user would be waiting and staring to the screen. I am planning to add some clientside event to show a spinner-wheel indicating that the document is being loaded so I cannot do postback here.

Modi Mayank 15-Mar-15 11:07am

For that you can use AJAX progress bar along with update panel. Here is the simple example for simple AJAX example of update panel with progressbar

Arkadeep De 15-Mar-15 12:08pm

I will go with Modi. You can easily use AJAX progress bar...

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Tadit Dash (ତଡିତ୍ କୁମାର ଦାଶ) · Answer 1 · 2015-03-14T23:09:00

Solution 1

The best approach is to redirect user to another page, where you will start the download in the page load itself and on that page you will display "Thanks for downloading" or something like that.

Posted 14-Mar-15 23:09pm

Tadit Dash (ତଡିତ୍ କୁମାର ଦାଶ)

Comments

JackTheGreatest 15-Mar-15 5:35am

How to do this from a WebMethod (you can not redirect from webmethod)? And how will that solve the current situation when I am not going to store(create) file and need it to be created and pushed to user without it being saved anywhere.

Tadit Dash (ତଡିତ୍ କୁମାର ଦାଶ) 15-Mar-15 6:03am

No need to execute WebMethod. Just use normal server side method or an event and inside that redirect to a new download page. On the page load of that page, get the required data from database and then assign that to the response object.

Arkadeep De 15-Mar-15 12:08pm

or you can use windows.location.href = "your page url";