Unable to export data to XML in ASP.NET - Data exported to HTML instead of XML

Question

I want to export some data from my ASP.NET web form application to a downloadable XML file but I can't get it to display the downlaoded information as an XML file. It outputs the information as an html document instead of XML.

protected void ExportXMLButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

    using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
    {
        // Create an XML document. Write our specific values into the document.
        XmlTextWriter xmlWriter = new XmlTextWriter(stream, System.Text.Encoding.ASCII);
        // Write the XML document header.
        xmlWriter.WriteStartDocument();
        // Write our first XML header.
        xmlWriter.WriteStartElement("WebApplications");
        // Write an element representing a single web application object.
        xmlWriter.WriteStartElement("WebApplication");
        // Write child element data for our web application object.
        xmlWriter.WriteElementString("Date", DateTime.Now.ToString());
        xmlWriter.WriteElementString("Programmer", "Label1.Text");
        xmlWriter.WriteElementString("Name", "Sample name ");
        xmlWriter.WriteElementString("Language", "C# ");
        xmlWriter.WriteElementString("Status", "Done");
        // End the element WebApplication
        xmlWriter.WriteEndElement();
        // End the document WebApplications
        xmlWriter.WriteEndElement();
        // Finilize the XML document by writing any required closing tag.
        xmlWriter.WriteEndDocument();
        // To be safe, flush the document to the memory stream.
        xmlWriter.Flush();
        // Convert the memory stream to an array of bytes.
        byte[] byteArray = stream.ToArray();
        // Send the XML file to the web browser for download.
        Response.Clear();
        Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "filename=MyExportedFile.xml");
        Response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", byteArray.Length.ToString());
        Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream";
        Response.BinaryWrite(byteArray);
        xmlWriter.Close();

    }
}

I expect the output to be an XML file, but the actual output is my data being shown on the screen as a text.

Answer 1

You're writing the wrong headers. Use:

Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=...
Content-Type: application/xml

As a minimum. See:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Disposition
• Valid content-type for XML, HTML and XHTML documents

Answer 2

I think that deleting this is the answer:

Response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", byteArray.Length.ToString());