How to delete file after download with ASP.NET MVC?

Question

I want to delete a file immediately after download, how do I do it? I\'ve tried to subclass FilePathResult and override the WriteFile method where

Answer 1

My used pattern.

1)Create file.

2)Delete old created file, FileInfo.CreationTime < DateTime.Now.AddHour(-1)

3)User downloaded.

How about this idea?

Answer 2

You could create a custom actionfilter for the action with an OnActionExecuted Method that would then remove the file after the action was completed, something like

public class DeleteFileAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute 
{ 
    public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext) 
    { 
        // Delete file 
    } 
} 

then your action has

[DeleteFileAttribute]
public FileContentResult GetFile(int id)
{
   ...
}

Answer 3

SOLUTION:

One should either subclass the FileResult or create a custom action filter, but the tricky part is to flush the response before trying to delete the file.

Answer 4

Read in the bytes of the file, delete it, call the base controller's File action.

public class MyBaseController : Controller
{
    protected FileContentResult TemporaryFile(string fileName, string contentType, string fileDownloadName)
    {
        var bytes = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(fileName);
        System.IO.File.Delete(fileName);
        return File(bytes, contentType, fileDownloadName);
    }
}

BTW, you may refrain from this method if you're dealing with very large files, and you're concerned about the memory consumption.

Answer 5

Create file and save it.
Response.Flush() sends all data to client.
Then you can delete temporary file.

This works for me:

FileInfo newFile = new FileInfo(Server.MapPath(tmpFile));

//create file, and save it
//...

string attachment = string.Format("attachment; filename={0}", fileName);
Response.Clear();
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", attachment);
Response.ContentType = fileType;
Response.WriteFile(newFile.FullName);
Response.Flush();
newFile.Delete();
Response.End();

Answer 6

I have posted this solution in https://stackoverflow.com/a/43561635/1726296

public ActionResult GetFile()
    {
            string theFilename = "<Full path your file name>"; //Your actual file name
            Response.Clear();
            Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=<file name to be shown as download>"); //optional if you want forced download
            Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"; //Appropriate content type based of file type
            Response.WriteFile(theFilename); //Write file to response
            Response.Flush(); //Flush contents
            Response.End(); //Complete the response
            System.IO.File.Delete(theFilename); //Delete your local file

            return new EmptyResult(); //return empty action result
    }