Downloaded file is damaged in django

Question

i am writing this function in views.py file:

def download(request):

    file = open("D:\wamp\www\User_App.rar","r")
    mimetype = mimetypes.guess_type("D:\wamp\www\User_App.rar")[0]
    if not mimetype: mimetype = "application/octet-stream"

    response = HttpResponse(file.read(), mimetype=mimetype)
    response["Content-Disposition"]= "attachment; filename=%s" % os.path.split("D:\wamp\www\User_App.rar")[1]
    return response

to download file but when that downloads and i open this it is damaged. how to solve this problem.

A few comments on code style. `file` is a reserved word in python, you shouldn't name your variables `file`. Also: use a context manager to open files, ie `with open(filename) as f: response = HttpResponse(f.read(), mimetype=mimetype)` — room2web, Mar 25 '14 at 12:31
Don't use one-line if statements :). PEP8 frowns upon them. That said. Read PEP8 :). Does mimetypes.guess_type(...) always return a non-empty list? If not, you should use `try: ... expect IndexError: ...` to get the mimetype (google Duck Typing). — room2web, Mar 26 '14 at 10:11

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '14 at 12:29

3

Open files in binary mode:

file = open(r"D:\wamp\www\User_App.rar", "rb")

as opening files in text mode means line endings are translated to a platform-neutral \n character.

answered Mar 25 '14 at 12:29

Martijn Pieters

1,048,767
296
4,058
3,343

what if i want to use `path_to_file = D:\wamp\www\User_App.rar` and then file = open(r"path_to_file", "rb") ,,, but it generates error how to solve this? – Tameen Malik Mar 27 '14 at 08:25
You may want to tell me **what** error it generates. – Martijn Pieters Mar 27 '14 at 08:26
@Martijin please visit http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22680887/file-reading-error-in-django – Tameen Malik Mar 27 '14 at 08:27
You misunderstood what the `r` does; I used a raw string literal to prevent the ``\`` backslashes in your path from being interpreted as escape sequences. – Martijn Pieters Mar 27 '14 at 08:32
See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18084554/why-do-i-get-a-syntaxerror-for-a-unicode-escape-in-my-file-path/18084594#18084594 for what options you have – Martijn Pieters Mar 27 '14 at 08:38

Downloaded file is damaged in django

1 Answers1

Linked