[Catalyst] Download a file - Catalyst Docs 'Cookbook' example doesn't work

[Kieren Diment]

I'd be inclined to do set $c->stash( served_file => 1) if one of these files is served

then avoid forwarding to the view if this stash key is set in MyApp.pm with the following:

sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {
	my ($self, $c); 
	return 1 if $c->stash(served_file);
}

See the docs for Catalyst::Action::RenderView for details.

On 11/11/2010, at 5:33 PM, Matthew Braid wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Part of the site I'm writing includes the ability to download certain
> files. These files can be large, so going from the cookbook method at
> http://search.cpan.org/~zarquon/Catalyst-Manual-5.8005/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Cookbook.pod#Forcing_the_browser_to_download_content,
> I modified it so that the download code was (chopped down code ahead):
> 
>    my $fh = handle_of_file_content(); # Pseudo
>    my $filename = $c->stash->{file}->fname;
>    $c->res->header('Content-Disposition', qq[attachment;
> filename="$filename"]);
>    $c->res->body($fh);
> 
> According to the docs, this should download the file (the filehandle
> should be read chunk by chunk and all will be well). Unfortunately
> instead the following happens:
> 
>  1) The browser always identifies the content as a "HTML File"
>  2) Only a small chunk of the file is actually downloaded.
> 
> So I made another change and decided to use the response object's
> write method like so:
> 
>  my $fh = handle_of_file_content(); # Pseudo
>  my $filename = $c->stash->{file}->fname;
>  $c->res->header('Content-Disposition', qq[attachment; filename="$filename"]);
>  while (defined(my $line = <$fh>)) {
>    $c->res->write($line);
>  }
>  close($fh);
> 
> This almost works as well - the browser identifies the file type
> correctly, and the whole file is downloaded.
> 
> Unfortunately the file has a Catalyst error page appended (the error
> is it can't find the default template). I'm assuming this is because
> once the action is handled it still goes to the default View and tries
> to render a page.
> 
> So, am I doing something horribly wrong, or do I just need the magic
> words that say "Do not forward to the default view"? I'm hoping the
> latter, and I'm hoping it's something blindingly obvious and my brain
> is just running slow today.
> 
> TIA,
> MB
> 
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