Changing file name for download in MVC3

Question

Problem: I have file named by their Id from database. And when somebody want to downaload it I need to change it to it's real name. File on the server looks for example like: http://localhost:34256/Content/uploads/23. So for example my file name is 23 but i need to change it to textfile1.txt.

I have created a partial view with list of those files:

@foreach (var item in Model)
{   
    <a href="/Content/uploads/@item.Id" title="@Html.Encode(item.FileName)">
        <img src="@item.IcoSrc" /><br />
        @item.FileName
    </a>    
}

Where @item.FileName is real name of file. When somebody download file from this list, he get's file named @item.Id and not @item.FileName. How can I change it?

I am using MVC3 and .NET framevork 4.

Any help much appreciated!

You can change the file name via HTTP header, like in this [post](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/93551/how-to-encode-the-filename-parameter-of-content-disposition-header-in-http) — Madd0g, Nov 27 '11 at 10:04
Content-Disposition can be used to specify a filename. Have a look at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5826649/returning-a-file-to-view-download-in-mvc — Markus Jarderot, Nov 27 '11 at 10:06

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 27 '11 at 10:12

You could create a controller action that will serve the file:

public ActionResult Download(string id, string name)
{
    var file = Server.MapPath("~/Content/uploads/" + id);
    return File(file, "application/octet-stream", name);
}

and then point the link to this controller action:

@foreach (var item in Model)
{   
    <a href="@Url.Action("Download", new { id = item.Id, name = item.FileName })" title="@Html.Encode(item.FileName)">
        <img src="@item.IcoSrc" /><br />
        @item.FileName
    </a>    
}

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 27 '11 at 10:09

Since you are using MVC you can create an action that returns a FileContentResult.

Read this article for the details: http://www.mikesdotnetting.com/Article/125/ASP.NET-MVC-Uploading-and-Downloading-Files

The following snippet is extracted from that article. Notice that you can control the filename property:

public FileContentResult GetFile(int id)
{
  SqlDataReader rdr; byte[] fileContent = null; 
  string mimeType = "";string fileName = "";
  const string connect = @"Server=.\SQLExpress;Database=FileTest;Trusted_Connection=True;";

  using (var conn = new SqlConnection(connect))
  {
    var qry = "SELECT FileContent, MimeType, FileName FROM FileStore WHERE ID = @ID";
    var cmd = new SqlCommand(qry, conn);
    cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@ID", id);
    conn.Open();
    rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
    if (rdr.HasRows)
    {
      rdr.Read();
      fileContent = (byte[])rdr["FileContent"];
      mimeType = rdr["MimeType"].ToString();
      fileName = rdr["FileName"].ToString();
    }
  }
  return File(fileContent, mimeType, fileName);
}

The OP's actual files are not stored into the database. They reside in the ~/Content/uploads folder. — Darin Dimitrov, Nov 27 '11 at 10:13
The fileContent variable contains the stream to be served as the file. The fileName defines the desired name of the file. You can set those variables in any way you need to achieve the same purpose, serving the content from any source. — agarcian, Nov 27 '11 at 10:38

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

1

You can't do it in the link to the file. You have to do it by setting a Content-Disposition header in the response delivering the file back to the client.

See this SO post for more info: https://stackoverflow.com/q/3102276/280222

edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

Community

1
1

answered Nov 27 '11 at 10:05

Anders Abel

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 27 '11 at 10:10

As Anders said, you need to use Content-Disposition.

To do this, create a controller-derivative that has a method .e.g Download, that takes the ID of the file. You can then read the ID (and obtain the original filename), and use the FileResult class to deliver the file (you can set the filename using the FileDownloadName property which will set the disposition for you.

Changing file name for download in MVC3

4 Answers4