Web API 2, return string as a file

Question

I have a Web API 2 POST endpoint which takes a parameter, queries the database and returns an xml string as the response.

public async Task<IHttpActionResult> Post(long groupId)
{
    People people = await _someService.GetPeople(groupId);
    XElement peopleXml = _xmlService.ConverToXml(people);
    return Ok(peopleXml);
}

How do I to return the xml as a file instead?

This could be helpful http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30125702/how-to-return-a-file-from-web-api-controller — Felipe Cruz, Jan 17 '17 at 22:08

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 17 '17 at 23:31

Figured it out myself, but I hope there is a simpler way -

public async Task<IHttpActionResult> Post(long groupId)
{
    People people = await _someService.GetPeople(groupId);
    XElement peopleXml = _xmlService.ConverToXml(people);
    byte[] toBytes = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(peopleXml.ToString());

    var stream = new MemoryStream(toBytes);

    var result = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK)
    {
        Content = new StreamContent(stream)
    };
    result.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new System.Net.Http.Headers.ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment")
    {
        FileName = "test.txt"
    };
    result.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/plain");

    var response = ResponseMessage(result);
    return response;
}

Web API 2, return string as a file

1 Answers1