Question

I’m using Service Stack for a simple web application.

In this app i need to “export” some content to Excel.. So this is the approach I took:

1. I get the HTML content of a table with jQuery a get the HTML content
   of a table, and send to the service.
2. The Service write the content to a file (with some CSS)
3. Using the same service, but with a GET method, I read the file and
   make the download with ContentType:"application/vnd.ms-excel"

I used this approach without Service Stack in other times, and worked well.. The XLS file had the right content and some colors.

Now, when I get the file using GET method (i.e., visiting the url with the browser), the file contents are bad.

ServiceStack let download with some formats: html, csv, jsv, json, xml.

The html format shows up a default report page, the only format that works a little is jsv.

My question is: how can I download the file like plain html file?

Some code:

public class ExcelService : RestServiceBase<Excel>
{   
    public override object OnGet (Excel request)
    {
        string file = request.nombre;
        //Response.Clear();
        HttpResult res = new HttpResult();
        res.Headers[HttpHeaders.ContentType] = "application/vnd.ms-excel";
        res.Headers[HttpHeaders.ContentDisposition] = "attachment; filename="+file+".xls";
        string archivo = System.IO.File.ReadAllText("tmp/"+file+".html");
        res.Response = archivo;
        return res;
    }
}

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

The HttpResult Constructor in ServiceStack as an overload that supports file downloads, e.g:

return new HttpResult(new FileInfo("tmp/"+file+".html"), 
    asAttachment: true, 
    contentType: "application/vnd.ms-excel");

Which will set the ContentDisposition HTTP headers required for file downloading.

Creating your own Http Result

For more fine-grained control of the HttpOutput you can also create your own Result class. Here is an example of downloading an Excel spreadsheet taken from the customized responses in ServiceStack question:

public class ExcelFileResult : IHasOptions, IStreamWriterAsync
{
    private readonly Stream _responseStream;
    public IDictionary<string, string> Options { get; private set; }

    public ExcelFileResult(Stream responseStream)
    {
        _responseStream = responseStream;

        Options = new Dictionary<string, string> {
             {"Content-Type", "application/octet-stream"},
             {"Content-Disposition", ""attachment; filename=\"report.xls\";"}
         };
    }

    public async Task WriteToAsync(Stream responseStream, CancellationToken token = default)
    {
        if (_responseStream == null) 
            return;

        await _responseStream.CopyToAsync(responseStream, token);
        await responseStream.FlushAsync(token);
    }
}