C# – Return file in ASP.Net Core Web API

.net coreasp.net-coreasp.net-core-webapic

Problem

I want to return a file in my ASP.Net Web API Controller, but all my approaches return the HttpResponseMessage as JSON.

Code so far

public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> DownloadAsync(string id)
{
    var response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
    response.Content = new StreamContent({{__insert_stream_here__}});
    response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/octet-stream");
    return response;
}

When I call this endpoint in my browser, the Web API returns the HttpResponseMessage as JSON with the HTTP Content Header set to application/json.

Best Answer

If this is ASP.net-Core then you are mixing web API versions. Have the action return a derived IActionResult because in your current code the framework is treating HttpResponseMessage as a model.

[Route("api/[controller]")]
public class DownloadController : Controller {
    //GET api/download/12345abc
    [HttpGet("{id}")]
    public async Task<IActionResult> Download(string id) {
        Stream stream = await {{__get_stream_based_on_id_here__}}

        if(stream == null)
            return NotFound(); // returns a NotFoundResult with Status404NotFound response.

        return File(stream, "application/octet-stream"); // returns a FileStreamResult
    }    
}

Note:

The framework will dispose of the stream used in this case when the response is completed. If a using statement is used, the stream will be disposed before the response has been sent and result in an exception or corrupt response.

Related Solutions

C# – File Upload ASP.NET MVC 3.0

You don't use a file input control. Server side controls are not used in ASP.NET MVC. Checkout the following blog post which illustrates how to achieve this in ASP.NET MVC.

So you would start by creating an HTML form which would contain a file input:

@using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Home", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))
{
    <input type="file" name="file" />
    <input type="submit" value="OK" />
}

and then you would have a controller to handle the upload:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    // This action renders the form
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    // This action handles the form POST and the upload
    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(HttpPostedFileBase file)
    {
        // Verify that the user selected a file
        if (file != null && file.ContentLength > 0) 
        {
            // extract only the filename
            var fileName = Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);
            // store the file inside ~/App_Data/uploads folder
            var path = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/uploads"), fileName);
            file.SaveAs(path);
        }
        // redirect back to the index action to show the form once again
        return RedirectToAction("Index");        
    }
}

C# – How to safely call an async method in C# without await

If you want to get the exception "asynchronously", you could do:

  MyAsyncMethod().
    ContinueWith(t => Console.WriteLine(t.Exception),
        TaskContinuationOptions.OnlyOnFaulted);

This will allow you to deal with an exception on a thread other than the "main" thread. This means you don't have to "wait" for the call to MyAsyncMethod() from the thread that calls MyAsyncMethod; but, still allows you to do something with an exception--but only if an exception occurs.

Update:

technically, you could do something similar with await:

try
{
    await MyAsyncMethod().ConfigureAwait(false);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Trace.WriteLine(ex);
}

...which would be useful if you needed to specifically use try/catch (or using) but I find the ContinueWith to be a little more explicit because you have to know what ConfigureAwait(false) means.