Export to CSV using MVC, C# and jQuery

Question

I am trying to export a list to a CSV file. I got it all working up to the point I want to write to file to the response stream. This doesn't do anything.

Here is my code:

Call the the method from the page.

$('#btn_export').click(function () {          $.post('NewsLetter/Export'); }); 

The code in the controller is as follows:

[HttpPost]         public void Export()         {             try             {                 var filter = Session[FilterSessionKey] != null ? Session[FilterSessionKey] as SubscriberFilter : new SubscriberFilter();                  var predicate = _subscriberService.BuildPredicate(filter);                 var compiledPredicate = predicate.Compile();                 var filterRecords = _subscriberService.GetSubscribersInGroup().Where(x => !x.IsDeleted).AsEnumerable().Where(compiledPredicate).GroupBy(s => s.Subscriber.EmailAddress).OrderBy(x => x.Key);                  ExportAsCSV(filterRecords);             }             catch (Exception exception)             {                 Logger.WriteLog(LogLevel.Error, exception);             }         }          private void ExportAsCSV(IEnumerable<IGrouping<String, SubscriberInGroup>> filterRecords)         {             var sw = new StringWriter();             //write the header             sw.WriteLine(String.Format("{0},{1},{2},{3}", CMSMessages.EmailAddress, CMSMessages.Gender, CMSMessages.FirstName, CMSMessages.LastName));              //write every subscriber to the file             var resourceManager = new ResourceManager(typeof(CMSMessages));             foreach (var record in filterRecords.Select(x => x.First().Subscriber))             {                 sw.WriteLine(String.Format("{0},{1},{2},{3}", record.EmailAddress, record.Gender.HasValue ? resourceManager.GetString(record.Gender.ToString()) : "", record.FirstName, record.LastName));             }              Response.Clear();             Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=adressenbestand.csv");             Response.ContentType = "text/csv";             Response.Write(sw);             Response.End();         } 

But after Response.Write(sw) nothing is happening. Is it even possible to save a file this way?

Regards

Edit
The response headers I see when I click the button are:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/csv; charset=utf-8 Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5 X-AspNetMvc-Version: 2.0 Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=adressenbestand.csv X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:05:42 GMT Content-Length: 113 

Which seem OK to me..

Edit
I got rid of the jQuery part en replaced it by an hyperlink and this is working fine for me now:

<a class="export" href="NewsLetter/Export">exporteren</a> 

Answer 1

yan.kun was on the right track but this is much much easier.

    public FileContentResult DownloadCSV()     {         string csv = "Charlie, Chaplin, Chuckles";         return File(new System.Text.UTF8Encoding().GetBytes(csv), "text/csv", "Report123.csv");     }