Question

Internet explorer used to prompt a user to download an excel file after doing a Response.Write

Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel";
            Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=\"sheet.xls\"");
            Response.RedirectLocation = "export.xls";
            Response.Charset = "";
EnableViewState = false;

            System.IO.StringWriter oStringWriter = new System.IO.StringWriter();
            System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter oHtmlTextWriter = new System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter(oStringWriter);

            dataGridResult.RenderControl(oHtmlTextWriter);
            Response.Write(oStringWriter.ToString());

This works when I POST back to a page with a button click event.

I am using a page as a service and doing a $.get(), but the results are sent back as HTML. I am not prompted to open the excel file. How can send the prompt out to the user?

$.get('ExcelService.aspx',
                        { batches: input },
                        function (data) {
                            alert(data);//I see HTML
                        });

Answer 1

This is a similar thread, with a similar problem (“I would like to make an async GET request that returns back a document with MIME content type and cause it to bring the browser’s ‘Save’ dialog.”)

How to specify content-type and content-disposition with $.ajax() GET response

Someone there offers a workaround to it:

If you’d like to programatically pop a save dialog box, you can use jQuery to append a hidden iframe to the page with the URL as it’s src. This should pop the dialog box as necessary.

---

SAMPLE
jquery – on click (dont need ajax/get)

            var dynamicUrl = 'ExcelService.aspx?batches=' + input;
            $('#excelPopup').attr('src', dynamicUrl);
            window.frames["#excelPopup"].location.reload();

HTML

<iframe id="excelPopup" style="visibility:hidden;height:0px;width:0px;"></iframe>