How to provide a file download from a JSF backing bean?

Question

Is there any way of providing a file download from a JSF backing bean action method? I have tried a lot of things. Main problem is that I cannot figure how to get the

Answer 1

This is what worked for me:

public void downloadFile(String filename) throws IOException {
    final FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    final ExternalContext externalContext = fc.getExternalContext();

    final File file = new File(filename);

    externalContext.responseReset();
    externalContext.setResponseContentType(ContentType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM.getMimeType());
    externalContext.setResponseContentLength(Long.valueOf(file.lastModified()).intValue());
    externalContext.setResponseHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=" + file.getName());

    final HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse) externalContext.getResponse();

    FileInputStream input = new FileInputStream(file);
    byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
    final ServletOutputStream out = response.getOutputStream();

    while ((input.read(buffer)) != -1) {
        out.write(buffer);
    }

    out.flush();
    fc.responseComplete();
}