C# – Download file of any type in Asp.Net MVC using FileResult

asp.net-mvc-2c

I've had it suggested to me that I should use FileResult to allow users to download files from my Asp.Net MVC application. But the only examples of this I can find always has to do with image files (specifying content type image/jpeg).

But what if I can't know the file type? I want users to be able to download pretty much any file from the filearea of my site.

I had read one method of doing this (see a previous post for the code), that actually works fine, except for one thing: the name of the file that comes up in the Save As dialog is concatenated from the file path with underscores (folder_folder_file.ext). Also, it seems people think I should return a FileResult instead of using this custom class that I had found BinaryContentResult.

Anyone know the "correct" way of doing such a download in MVC?

EDIT:
I got the answer (below), but just thought I should post the full working code if someone else is interested:

public ActionResult Download(string filePath, string fileName)
{
    string fullName = Path.Combine(GetBaseDir(), filePath, fileName);

    byte[] fileBytes = GetFile(fullName);
    return File(
        fileBytes, System.Net.Mime.MediaTypeNames.Application.Octet, fileName);
}

byte[] GetFile(string s)
{
    System.IO.FileStream fs = System.IO.File.OpenRead(s);
    byte[] data = new byte[fs.Length];
    int br = fs.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
    if (br != fs.Length)
        throw new System.IO.IOException(s);
    return data;
}

Best Answer

You can just specify the generic octet-stream MIME type:

public FileResult Download()
{
    byte[] fileBytes = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(@"c:\folder\myfile.ext");
    string fileName = "myfile.ext";
    return File(fileBytes, System.Net.Mime.MediaTypeNames.Application.Octet, fileName);
}

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor(
    x => x.YourEnumField,
    "Select My Type", 
    new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

@Html.DropDownList("MyType", 
   EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(MyType)) , 
   "Select My Type", 
   new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC 5 and lower

I rolled Rune's answer into an extension method:

namespace MyApp.Common
{
    public static class MyExtensions{
        public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)
            where TEnum : struct, IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible
        {
            var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
                select new { Id = e, Name = e.ToString() };
            return new SelectList(values, "Id", "Name", enumObj);
        }
    }
}

This allows you to write:

ViewData["taskStatus"] = task.Status.ToSelectList();

by using MyApp.Common

C# – How to handle multiple submit buttons in ASP.NET MVC Framework

Here is a mostly clean attribute-based solution to the multiple submit button issue based heavily on the post and comments from Maarten Balliauw.

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]
public class MultipleButtonAttribute : ActionNameSelectorAttribute
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Argument { get; set; }

    public override bool IsValidName(ControllerContext controllerContext, string actionName, MethodInfo methodInfo)
    {
        var isValidName = false;
        var keyValue = string.Format("{0}:{1}", Name, Argument);
        var value = controllerContext.Controller.ValueProvider.GetValue(keyValue);

        if (value != null)
        {
            controllerContext.Controller.ControllerContext.RouteData.Values[Name] = Argument;
            isValidName = true;
        }

        return isValidName;
    }
}

razor:

<form action="" method="post">
 <input type="submit" value="Save" name="action:Save" />
 <input type="submit" value="Cancel" name="action:Cancel" />
</form>

and controller:

[HttpPost]
[MultipleButton(Name = "action", Argument = "Save")]
public ActionResult Save(MessageModel mm) { ... }

[HttpPost]
[MultipleButton(Name = "action", Argument = "Cancel")]
public ActionResult Cancel(MessageModel mm) { ... }

Update: Razor pages looks to provide the same functionality out of the box. For new development, it may be preferable.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – How to create a dropdownlist from an enum in ASP.NET MVC

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

For MVC 5 and lower

C# – How to handle multiple submit buttons in ASP.NET MVC Framework

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