Question

I use Aspose to generate a Word document. It must be opened in the browser automatically when it comes back from the server.

Here is my code:

Do Ajax call to get the document

    $.ajax({
        url: "Export/StreamWord",
        data: { topicId: CurrentTopic.id },
        success: function (result) {
            //Nothing here. I think that the browser must open the file automatically.
        }
    });

Controller .NET MVC 3

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Get)]
    public ActionResult StreamWord(string topicId)
    {
        var stream = new MemoryStream();
        Document doc = exportRepos.GenerateWord(topicId); //Document is a Aspose object
        doc.Save(stream, SaveFormat.Docx);
        stream.WriteTo(Response.OutputStream);
        return File(stream, "application/doc", "test.doc");
    }

BUT when I run it from the browser nothing happen.
Response from the server you can see on the image. Document comes, but it is not been opened.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Do not use AJAX for this, just use a simple page redirect instead. If you use a page redirect it will prompt the user to download the file, it won’t actually move them away from the current page.

The code would look like

document.location.href = "Export/StreamWord?topicId=" + CurrentTopic.Id;

What you’re attempting is not possible with AJAX.