I need to stream a file to the Response for saving on the end user’s machine. The file is plain text, so what content type can I use to prevent the text being displayed in the browser?
Answers:
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Method 1
To be on the safe side and ensure consistent behavior in all browsers, it’s usually better to use both:
Content-Type: application/octet-stream Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="My Text File.txt"
Method 2
In most cases, the following should work:
Content-type: application/octet-stream Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="myfile.txt"
There are some marginal cases of browsers that will still display it as a text file, but none of the mainstream browsers will (I’m talking about browsers embedded in some MIDs).
EDIT: When this answer was originally published, sending the Mime-Type application/octet-stream was the only reliable way to trigger a download in some browsers. Now in 2016, if you do not need to support an ancient browser, you can safely specify the proper mime-type.
Method 3
I don’t think it works that way.
Use a Content-Disposition: attachment header, but stick with the correct Content-Type.
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