How to provide a file download from a JSF backing bean?

Question

Is there any way of providing a file download from a JSF backing bean action method? I have tried a lot of things. Main problem is that I cannot figure how to get the

Answer 1

here is the complete code snippet http://bharatonjava.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/downloading-file-in-jsf-2/

 @ManagedBean(name = "formBean")
 @SessionScoped
 public class FormBean implements Serializable
 {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

   /**
    * Download file.
    */
   public void downloadFile() throws IOException
   {
      File file = new File("C:\\docs\\instructions.txt");
      InputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
      byte[] buf = new byte[1024];
      int offset = 0;
      int numRead = 0;
      while ((offset < buf.length) && ((numRead = fis.read(buf, offset, buf.length -offset)) >= 0)) 
      {
        offset += numRead;
      }
      fis.close();
      HttpServletResponse response =
         (HttpServletResponse) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance()
        .getExternalContext().getResponse();

     response.setContentType("application/octet-stream");
     response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=instructions.txt");
     response.getOutputStream().write(buf);
     response.getOutputStream().flush();
     response.getOutputStream().close();
     FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().responseComplete();
   }
 }

You may change the file reading logic in case you want file to get generated at runtime.