How to download a file using ASP.NET?

Question

Hi, I would like to offer in my web application the posibility of downloading a file, but I always get the following error: Access denied to 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\earthday05.gif'. My code is: //string address = 'http://www.google.com/logos/earthday05.gif'; This doesn't work neither string address = 'http://www.google.com/logos/'; string fileName = 'earthday05.gif'; System.Net.WebClient webclient = new System.Net.WebClient(); webclient.DownloadFile(address, fileName); The previous code is just an exaple of downloading the picture of the Google main page, and I get the same error if I try to download a file from my server. Thanks, goraperas

goraperas · Answer

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!! Just one comment, I needed to use ATTACHMENT instead of INLINE, and it worked perfectly: Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename='CSCornerTest.doc'"); Regards, goraperas

Stan Gershengoren · Answer

That can definately be done. Do it like this Response.Clear(); Response.ContentType = "application/msword"; Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition","inline; filename="CSCornerTest.doc"); Response.WriteFile(absolute file path); Response.Flush(); //optional

goraperas · Answer

Hi, What I would like to do is to offer the possibility of downloading a Microsoft Word Document which is stored on my server. I can open it on a new window, so the user could save it by selecting on the menu File --> Save as..., but I thought that it would be smarter if a file-dowload-dialog or similar appear on the screen with the typical options like Open, Save, Cancel... So what should I write on my downloadButton_Click event? The lines I wrote were OK? Should I put the line Response.AddHeader(...) somewhere? I tried different situations but I wasn't able to make it work. Thanks, goraperas

Stan Gershengoren · Answer

Yes, but the dynamic of that is completely different. When you will attempt to serve an image to a user, his/her browser might take it upon itself to just render the image, instead of giving the user an option to save it. As for other files, you would have to read it completely first, store them somewhere on the server (does not have to be on the file system, you can store it in a Stream or a byte array) and then post it to the response stream. To make user/browser think it's a file and not an aspx page use this line of code Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition","inline; filename="CSCornerTest.gif"); Let me know if u have any questions P.S. (If you are only dealing with images I would suggest creating an <img tag and setting the src property to the remote image and then on the actual page writting instructions on how to save it to the local drive (right-click, save as,... and all that crap)

goraperas · Answer

Hi sgersh01, Thanks, it worked when I launch my application at localhost, but if I launch it in the client, in another computer, the application saves the file in the C:/temp123/ of the server, instead of the client. I suppose this may be because of security reasons, but could I make a save file dialog or similar, so that the user could agree to download the file, an to choose in which folder he would like to save it?? Thanks, goraperas

Stan Gershengoren · Answer

create a folder somewhere on your machine (c:	emp123) and give everyone full access to it. After that specify full path for the fileName like this string fileName = @"c:	emp123\earthday05.gif"; Try it out

How to download a file using ASP.NET?

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