Question

It shouldn’t be this hard to find out how to do this. Basically I’m trying to take a string and let the client save it when they click a button. It should pop up with a Save/Open dialog. No extra bells and whistles or anything. It’s not rocket science, (or so I would’ve thought).

There seems to be a ton of different ways, (StreamWriter, HttpResponse, etc.), but none of the examples I’ve been able to find work properly or explain what’s going on. Thanks in advance.

An example one of the many blocks of code I’ve found…

(This is just an example, feel free to not base your answer around this.)

String FileName = "FileName.txt";
String FilePath = "C:/...."; //Replace this
System.Web.HttpResponse response = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response;
response.ClearContent();
response.Clear();
response.ContentType = "text/plain";
response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + FileName + ";");
response.TransmitFile(FilePath);
response.Flush();
response.End();

Line 2 says to replace that string. How? This code was advertised as bringing up a dialog. I shouldn’t be having to set a path in the code, right?

EDIT: Final Outcome (Edited again, Delete has to come before End();)

        string FilePath = Server.MapPath("~/Temp/");
        string FileName = "test.txt";

        // Creates the file on server
        File.WriteAllText(FilePath + FileName, "hello");

        // Prompts user to save file
        System.Web.HttpResponse response = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response;
        response.ClearContent();
        response.Clear();
        response.ContentType = "text/plain";
        response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + FileName + ";");
        response.TransmitFile(FilePath + FileName);
        response.Flush();

        // Deletes the file on server
        File.Delete(FilePath + FileName);

        response.End();

Answer 1

Line 2 (FilePath) indicates the path to the file on the server

Line 8:

response.TransmitFile(FilePath);

Transmits that specific file to the client and THAT is what pops the save dialog.

If you don’t transmit the file, I’m not sure if the dialog will pop up at all (even though you set a header)

Anyways, I think line 8 should read:

    response.TransmitFile(FilePath + FileName);