How to send a file to browser for downloading?

Question

When client request for a file, I use this code to send it:

public static Result download(String file) {
    File file = getRealFile(file);
    return Ok(file);
}

But I found the browser will not download it, but display its content instead. The response header:

Content-Type    text/plain
Transfer-Encoding   chunked

What's the correct way to send a file?

Update

Per Razvi's answer, I found an answer seems good for this question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1074925/342235

But do we really have to set so many headers?

header("Cache-Control: public");
header("Content-Description: File Transfer");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filepath");
header("Content-Type: mime/type");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
// UPDATE: Add the below line to show file size during download.
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filepath));

Razvi · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20T10:01:07.357

8

You need to set the Content-Disposition header. I believe the value of the header should be attachment. See Manipulating the response doc for this.

For play 2.0 the following works without explicitly setting the header:

ok(new FileInputStream(file))

edited Jul 20 '12 at 10:01

answered Jul 19 '12 at 11:02

Razvi

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I thought play2 had some convenient method to do this, unlucky :) – Freewind Jul 19 '12 at 11:52
I found another way to do this, doesn't required explicitly setting the header. :) – Razvi Jul 19 '12 at 13:06
The `renderBinary` one is just for play1 :( – Freewind Jul 19 '12 at 14:01
1

But you gave me an idea. We can use 'ok(new FileInputStream(file))' in play2, and it works :) Please update your answer, and I will accept it. – Freewind Jul 19 '12 at 14:04

How to send a file to browser for downloading?

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