adding header to http response in an action inside a controller in asp.net/mvc

Question

I am streaming data from server to client for download using filestream.write. In that case what is happening is that I am able to download the file but it does not

Answer 1

Yes, You are doing it the wrong way try this, you should add the header inside your action not as an attribute header to your method.

HttpContext.Current.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment;filename=" & name)

or

Request.RequestContext.HttpContext.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "Attachment;filename=" & name)

Update As i understand you are making an ajax call to your controller/action which wont work for file download by directly calling an action. You can achieve it this way.

public void Download(string name)
        {
//your logic. Sample code follows. You need to write your stream to the response.

            var filestream = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(@"path/sourcefilename.pdf");
            var stream = new MemoryStream(filestream);
            stream.WriteTo(Response.OutputStream);
            Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "Attachment;filename=targetFileName.pdf");
            Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
        }

or

    public FileStreamResult Download(string name)
    {
        var filestream = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(@"path/sourcefilename.pdf");
        var stream = new MemoryStream(filestream);


        return new FileStreamResult(stream, "application/pdf")
        {
            FileDownloadName = "targetfilename.pdf"
        };
    }

In your JS button click you can just do something similar to this.

 $('#btnDownload').click(function () {
            window.location.href = "controller/download?name=yourargument";
    });