I have been looking for the way to download and save a file utilizing ASP.NET. I see plenty written on uploading files to the server. I also have been to many websites where a click invokes a SaveAs dialog to initiate a file download from the server. It appears that no book on ASP.NET addresses this subject. Can anybody shed any light on downloading files via the browser?

hi there..

this is a way i found but i dont remeber when.. you should not credit me for this thing... I have this being used in an application and is working...


        Response.AppendHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=" & sFileName)
        Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"
        Response.WriteFile(sFileNameWithPath)
        Response.Flush()



HTH

Gonzalo

I appreciate the response. I was told today by a co-worker that if I initialize a hyperlink to a file (i.e. .exe, .txt, .pdf, etc.) on the server and subsequently a user clicks on that link, the browser, recognizing the link to the file, will invoke a dialog to prompt the user to save or open the file. In other words, the download of a file is a functionality that is implicit in the browser and no server-side code is require to perform the download.

Well, that all depends on the browser's configuration.

On many systems, you'll find that .doc, .pdf, .txt, .xls and others are opened in the browser, because the browser *does* recognize them and is able to initialize a viewer....

I think the code that gbianchi posted should make *all* files be recognized as a downloadable, and not a viewable file....

Imar
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Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Beginning Dreamweaver MX / MX 2004