How to download a pdf from a mvc partial view?

Question

I've created a PdfActionResult class as follows:

public class PdfActionResult : ActionResult
{
    public byte[] FileContents { get; set; }
    public string FileName { get; set; }


    public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
    {
        var cd = new System.Net.Mime.ContentDisposition()
                     {
                        FileName = FileName,
                        Inline = false,
                     };

        context.HttpContext.Response.Buffer = true;
        context.HttpContext.Response.Clear();
        context.HttpContext.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", cd.ToString());
        context.HttpContext.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
        context.HttpContext.Response.BinaryWrite(FileContents);
    }

}

I have a controller method that returns a PdfActionResult. This works fine when called from within a view but it fails when called from a partial view. My guess is that it has something to do with the Controller context. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Instead of creating your own Result class, what about using FileResult instead? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1375486/how-to-create-file-and-return-it-via-fileresult-in-asp-net-mvc — Dave Markle, Sep 18 '12 at 01:15
@Dave Markle - thanks for the comment but I tried it and it's not working — Geri Langlois, Sep 18 '12 at 02:23

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 18 '12 at 02:50

Sorry for not answering your question more directly in my comments.

What do you expect to happen by putting this in a partial view? Basically, with files, it's an all or nothing proposition. As soon as you return a FileResult, it's game over. No page is rendered, and the only thing that happens is that a file is streamed over to the client's browser. Basically, in a HTTP stream you can only have one content type -- either it's an HTML document or it's another type of file.

If what you really want is to have a page with custom markup which happens to show a PDF inside a frame, I suggest using an <iframe> tag, then pointing the source of that's iFrame tag to be an action which returns the file.

Basically, I have a reports page in my app. This page has several jquery tabs - each tab loads a partial view. Fiddler actually shows the download whether I use a FileResult or my PdfActionResult. Inside a view both work - inside a partial view neither works. (I also tried it in a partial view outside of any tab and it did not work.) — Geri Langlois, Sep 18 '12 at 11:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 18 '12 at 13:00

Turns out the problem was not the partial view but the fact that I was using an Ajax.BeginForm. It was attempting the download in the Ajax context and that's what caused it to fail. Changing to Html.BeginForm did the trick - hopefully this helps someone in the future.

How to download a pdf from a mvc partial view?

2 Answers2