Return file in ASP.Net Core Web API
Asked 07 September, 2021
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Votes

Problem

I want to return a file in my ASP.Net Web API Controller, but all my approaches return the HttpResponseMessage as JSON.

Code so far

public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> DownloadAsync(string id)
{
    var response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
    response.Content = new StreamContent({{__insert_stream_here__}});
    response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/octet-stream");
    return response;
}

When I call this endpoint in my browser, the Web API returns the HttpResponseMessage as JSON with the HTTP Content Header set to application/json.

3 Answer