Stream file using ASP.NET MVC FileContentResult in a browser with a name?

Solution 1:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    byte[] contents = FetchPdfBytes();
    return File(contents, "application/pdf", "test.pdf");
}

and for opening the PDF inside the browser you will need to set the Content-Disposition header:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    byte[] contents = FetchPdfBytes();
    Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=test.pdf");
    return File(contents, "application/pdf");
}

Solution 2:

Actually, the absolutely easiest way is to do the following...

byte[] content = your_byte[];

FileContentResult result = new FileContentResult(content, "application/octet-stream") 
{
  FileDownloadName = "your_file_name"
};

return result;

Solution 3:

This might be helpful for whoever else faces this problem. I finally figured out a solution. Turns out, even if we use the inline for "content-disposition" and specify a file name, the browsers still do not use the file name. Instead browsers try and interpret the file name based on the Path/URL.

You can read further on this URL: Securly download file inside browser with correct filename

This gave me an idea, I just created my URL route that would convert the URL and end it with the name of the file I wanted to give the file. So for e.g. my original controller call just consisted of passing the Order Id of the Order being printed. I was expecting the file name to be of the format Order{0}.pdf where {0} is the Order Id. Similarly for quotes, I wanted Quote{0}.pdf.

In my controller, I just went ahead and added an additional parameter to accept the file name. I passed the filename as a parameter in the URL.Action method.

I then created a new route that would map that URL to the format: http://localhost/ShoppingCart/PrintQuote/1054/Quote1054.pdf

routes.MapRoute("", "{controller}/{action}/{orderId}/{fileName}",
                new { controller = "ShoppingCart", action = "PrintQuote" }
                , new string[] { "x.x.x.Controllers" }
            );

This pretty much solved my issue. Hoping this helps someone!

Cheerz, Anup