Download to client

[justputitdown]

Hi, im a little stuck and not too sure where to look as i havnt been using .Net for that long. I am using Visual Studio 2003 and i am creating a webforms application. For part of it a user can click on a button in a datagrid and depending on the row i want them to be able to download a specific file... Now i no that sounds simple but i dont want to create dynamic <a></a> links as i want to have more control over the download, ie monitor download progress etc... I have read about the Webclient object and methods and although it sounds handy i dont think it gives me that much control. Could someone maybe point me in the direction of a control or code that could possibly help? Some people have mentioned using streams but again im not quite sure where to start.

Thank you for your time.

 

[JohnH]

From 4.13 How can I force a Save As dialog box from an ASP.NET Web page.

Response.Clear() 
Response.AppendHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=document1.doc") 
Response.ContentType = "text/plain" 
Response.WriteFile(Server.MapPath("document1.doc")) 
Response.Flush() 
Response.End()

Instead of the Response.WriteFile line that does the full file stream, you can do it 'manually' like this:

Dim fs As New IO.FileStream(Server.MapPath("document1.doc"), IO.FileMode.Open, IO.FileAccess.Read)
Dim read, total As Integer, buffer(1024) As Byte
Do Until total = fs.Length
    read = fs.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)
    Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, read)
    total += read
Loop
fs.Close()

Now you have full control of the client download progress from server-side and can do what you want with that information.

Please update your forum profile, it now says you're on VB2005.

 

[justputitdown]

Thanks

Thank you for such a quick response! That looks like it is exactly what i am after, i will have a look at it and then give it a go... Think i may use this as a starting point to what will hopefully be a steep learning curve... Thank you very much for all your help.

 

[ImDaFrEaK]

I have a question. What is the major differences if any with the two options given above? I am still learning this myself and if the second option gives more flexability then I am curious as to what I can do with it. I just don't understand how the Response Class works when it comes to things like this.