ASP.NET MVC Controller FileContent ActionResult called via AJAX

Question

The setup:

The controller contains a method public ActionResult SaveFile() which returns a FileContentResult.

Answer 1

Here's a quick example I made up. This is the concept LukLed was talking about with calling SaveFile but don't return file contents via ajax and instead redirect to the download.

Here's the view code:

<% using (Html.BeginForm()) { %>

    
Field 1: <%= Html.TextBox("field1") %>

    
Field 2: <%= Html.TextBox("field2") %>

    
Field 3: <%= Html.TextBox("field3") %>

    Upload

<% } %>

Here's the controller code:

[HandleError]
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    public JsonResult SaveFile(string field1, string field2, string field3)
    {
        // save the data to the database or where ever
        int savedFileId = 1;

        // return the saved file id to the browser
        return Json(savedFileId);
    }

    public FileContentResult DownloadFile(int fileId)
    {
        // load file content from db or file system
        string fileContents = "field1,field2,field3";

        // convert to byte array
        // use a different encoding if needed
        var encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
        byte[] returnContent = encoding.GetBytes(fileContents);

        return File(returnContent, "application/CSV", "test.csv");
    }

    public ActionResult About()
    {
        return View();
    }
}