使用Javascript Ajax调用来调用MVC操作以下载对象

Question

Ive created a simple MVC controller action that creates a simple ics (calendar) item and sends it back through the controller action. As follows:

    public object GenerateICS(int myID)
    {
        iCalendar iCal = new iCalendar();            
         Event evt = iCal.Create<Event>();
        Uri eventLink = new Uri("http://localhost:");
        evt.IsAllDay = false;

       evt.Start = new iCalDateTime(DateTime.Now);
       evt.End = new iCalDateTime(DateTime.Now.AddDays(3));

       evt.Summary = "MySummary";
       evt.Url = eventLink;
       evt.Description = "You know it";         

      Response.ContentType = "text/v-calendar";
      Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=" + "Event" + ".ics");
      iCalendarSerializer serializer = new iCalendarSerializer(iCal);
      string result = serializer.SerializeToString(iCal);
      Response.Write(result);          
        return Response;
    }

So with the website running, if I go to:

http://localhost:21312/GenerateICS?myID=1 

This will generate the ics file server side and pass it back to the client, so your receive a "Do you want to open blah.ics from localhost?". This is perfectly what I want.

My issue is how do I achieve exactly the same by executing it from javascript. I have the following ajax call:

 $.ajax({
                url: "app/GenerateICS",
                data: { myID: 1 },
                success: function (data) {
                    //call is successfully completed and we got result in data
                    alert(data);
                },
                error: function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
                    //some errror, some show err msg to user and log the error  
                    alert(xhr.responseText);

                }
            });

This executes the mvc controller perfectly. But it returns the ics response to the success function. How do I call the controller with ajax but have it so the file is downloaded as I describe how it does when you manually do it?

Thanks

Answer 1

Thanks to @heads5150 for the link.

It was just the fact of setting the browser location with:

document.location.href = "app/GenerateICS?...";

Answer 2

In your ajax success , put this

  Window.location.href='yourICSfileLink';

This would redirect the browser on success of the ajax creating the file to then open or in this case download the ics file, note this would happen each time ajax success occured

Answer 3

I was just looking for downloading from js and the answer is generally related to creating an iframe and doing through it. There are even some jquery plugins that do so. Some eg:

Download File Using Javascript/jQuery

http://johnculviner.com/category/jQuery-File-Download.aspx

If you google it you can find even more about the topic.