ASP.NET MVC Redirecting to PDF but getting 404 on Development server

Question

So my client gave me a MVC site that was created and set up my another vendor. I have never worked with MVC until now so I am learning as I go. I was given a small up date to the site where the client needs a link to PDF, which will then open in the browser window. I added the PDF and added a new route and action in the Controller. The following is the code I added:

Home Controller Code

public ActionResult ViewPDF()
{
    return Redirect("Assets/PDF/myPDF.pdf");
}

Route Code

routes.MapRoutesLowercase(
    "Home-ViewPDF",
    "myPdf.pdf",
    new { controller = "Home", action = "ViewPDF" }
);

HTML Code

<a href="<% Url.Action("ViewPDF", "Home") %>"></a>"

Now when I test locally the link works and all is good. When I promote to my Development server I click the link and I get "The page cannot be found". But I know the file is on the server be cause if I type the path in the pdf comes up with no problem.

I have looked every where but cannot find anything online that comes close to what I am looking for, as far as I know that is.

I should note that before I was using Redirect in the Controller I was using a FileResult and returning the File with type application/PDF. However while I was debugging I tried the current method and like I said it worked locally but not on DEV.

Any help would be extremely helpful!! Thanks!

Have you checked the MIME types on the dev server? Make sure PDF is listed. — Ethan Brown, Apr 03 '12 at 18:09
I use the server for multiple projects in which I do the same type of thing with non MVC sites and it works fine. Could it be something IIS specific? — jpalladino84, Apr 03 '12 at 18:12

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

0

You should not link to the file directly.

Changing folder structure will result in an application pool recycle for one.

Have a look at: MVC open pdf file

edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

Community

1
1

answered Apr 03 '12 at 18:12

Eben Roux

12,983
2
27
48

As I said I used that method before which is fine I have all the code in place just commented out. However that does not resolve my issue as the problem still persists with the solution you are suggesting. – jpalladino84 Apr 03 '12 at 18:14
If you are getting status 404 for the FileResult it means that you are probably not reaching your Action. Have you tried just returning some plain html/text to see what is happening? Maybe check the http traffic? – Eben Roux Apr 03 '12 at 18:19

ASP.NET MVC Redirecting to PDF but getting 404 on Development server

1 Answers1