How to set downloading file name in ASP.NET Web API

Question

You need to set the Content-Disposition header on the HttpResponseMessage:

HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage();
response.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK;
response.Content = new StreamContent(result);
response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment")
{
    FileName = "foo.txt"
};

EDIT: As mentioned in a comment, My answer doesn't account for characters that need to be escaped like a ;. You should use the accepted answer Darin made if your file name could contain a semi-colon.

Add a Response.AddHeader to set the file name

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=*FILE_NAME*");

Just change FILE_NAME to the name of the file.

If you want to ensure that the file name is properly encoded but also avoid the WebApi HttpResponseMessage you can use the following:

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", new System.Net.Mime.ContentDisposition("attachment") { FileName = "foo.txt" }.ToString());

You may use either ContentDisposition or ContentDispositionHeaderValue. Calling ToString on an instance of either will do the encoding of file names for you.

I think that this might be helpful to you.

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + fileName)

You need to add the content-disposition header to the response:

 response.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK;
 response.Content = new StreamContent(result);
 response.AppendHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=" + fileName);
 return response;

If you are using ASP.NET Core MVC, the answers above are ever so slightly altered...

In my action method (which returns async Task<JsonResult>) I add the line (anywhere before the return statement):

Response.Headers.Add("Content-Disposition", $"attachment; filename={myFileName}");