File Download from ASP.NET 5.0 Web API [With only one line of code]

In this video, I am going to walk through how we can use out of box features of ASP.NET 5.0 Web API to allow file download from an ASP.NET Core Web API Application.
In this video, I will cover a couple of topics:
1. Create an HTTP GET method in Web API to allow file download (a CSV file)
2. Create an HTML/JavaScript page to allow calling of the Web API to download the CSV file
In this video, I will be using the Static file feature of ASP.NET Core. I have done a video in the past to explain how to expose static files in ASP.NET code, here is the link to that video: • How to serve Static Fi...
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[@danielberry9610]

Thanks for the vid. I couldn't get this to work in .NET 6 using the old methods. This works great!

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Daniel Berry, Thanks for watching!

[@brow318]

This solution was instrumental to helping me write XML files. Thanks so much.

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

Thanks for watching!

[@davimezalira]

Thanks...your tutorials about .net webapi is the best

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Davi Mezalira, thanks!

[@goodmanshawnhuang]

thanks for sharing this, that's exactly what I am looking for the solution to dynamically generate a file. thanks a lot.

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Shawn Huang, thanks for watching!

[@rongliao9255]

Very helpful tutorial! Especially covering the new .NET 5.0, great content!

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Rong Liao, thanks for watching!

[@aj.arunkumar]

awesome man... i always wondered about how file download would be implemented but never explored it...

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Arun Kumar A.J, thanks for watching!

[@emresun]

Great video, easiest way to download a file from asp.net web api.. Thank you..

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Emre Sunar, thanks for watching!

[@vj1012]

Very Informative and nicely eplainined.

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@vj1012, thanks for watching the video!

[@fanpeter-z3c]

that's sick, I have been trying very old answers from stackOverflow, none of them works, your answer should be updated in there

[@phelipelima4230]

but what if my method that returns the file its a POST method instead of a GET?

[@pieteb_nl]

Thanks man! Very to the point

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

Thanks!

[@TheOMarsawy]

You saved me Thank you!!!!!!!

[@bohirjonakhmedov]

what if you want to make your controller authorized?

[@aethenwulf4757]

how about a download button that will let you choose a file path / rename the file / save as ?

[@辰-g4i]

I appreciate you to update this video. I want to humbly ask u that is it possible to use this to let phone get the file in pc?

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@辰, thanks for watching! I will try to get the video in full HD to be phone-friendly.

[@辰-g4i]

@@DotNetCoreCentral It’s nice of you 👍 I’m looking forward to your video.

[@muhammedalitunc219]

You are amazing thank you

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Muhammed Ali Tunç, thanks for watching!

[@viktorrimoru797]

Doing a great job man! Thanks alot!

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Viktorr IMORU, thanks for watching!

[@harishkommuri5350]

It was fantastic video, could you make a video on - How a webApi/webApplication(.net core, mvc) handles the requests with multiple servers and a load balancer in front, I'm more looking into what happens If one of the server that served a request or generated a token for a user went down, wt will happen to user, will he be logged out? I was asked in a Interview I couldn't it explain it more...

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Harish Kommuri, thanks for watching the video. In terms of your question, the user credentials are usually kept in an out of process storage like a database, and the token is usually kept in an out of process cache. So even if a single server goes down, when the request goes to another server, it is still able to validate the user.

[@SuperSridar]

Good. In my case I want to download a large file. Say 500 MB. How to download it chunk by chunk instead of downloading as a whole.

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Shridhara Gowda, thanks for watching! If you need to create a chunk of data then that logic needs to be handled in the service and you will need to send back the total number of files that you will have to the caller with some ID's so that you can return back them the chunk later, and you will probably need to either save the chunk somewhere to return later or just manage it in memory.

[@ptlh1969]

Nice... thanks. :)

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Peter Toh, thanks for watching!

[@mahendranchinnaiah7593]

Thanks much..

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Mahendran Chinnaiah, thanks for watching!

[@arjunm.r8641]

@Dotnet core central can I do this for downloading a pdf from http url using asp.net core mvc with asp.net core web api ?Hope you understand my question

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Arjun m.r, yes, it should work.

[@eliassal1]

Another nice and useful video, great. I was about to get 3 coffees but while doing the visa card payment it seems that we should create a Paypal account which I don't like as it is not so safe

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Salam Elias, thanks for watching the video!

[@rizkyfardiansyahtanjung8863]

Hello Sir, How to download multiple file in asp net core?

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Rizky Fardiansyah Tanjung, for multiple file downloads, you can zip them together and download.

[@rizkyfardiansyahtanjung8863]

@@DotNetCoreCentral do you have any tutorials about this, sir?

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@@rizkyfardiansyahtanjung8863 no I dont have, but I can make one in the future.

[@svens3722]

does this also work with music files, for example wav? Great tutorial btw.

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Sven s, thanks for watching! I have not tried with wav or other extensions, but I don't see why not, might have to try it out.

[@svens3722]

@@DotNetCoreCentral wow fast response :D, yes im currently on trying. i will tel you in a few minutes. Thanks for your effort =).

[@svens3722]

@@DotNetCoreCentral wow it worked, i love you.

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@@svens3722 awesome!

[@thanitkonmek4478]

can't download file bigger then 2GB

[@DotNetCoreCentral]

@Thanit Konmek, I never tried to download such a big file. I will have to investigate where is the issue. If it is not supported out of the box, then zipping should help, otherwise breaking the file into multiple downloads.

[@mohammadrezamonshizadeh1528]

its not helpful