Methods for sending arbitrary data and for streaming files to the browser, instead of rendering.
Sends the given binary data to the browser. This method is similar to render :text => data, but also allows you to specify whether the browser should display the response as a file attachment (i.e. in a download dialog) or as inline data. You may also set the content type, the apparent file name, and other things.
Options:
:filename - suggests a filename for the browser to use.
:type - specifies an HTTP content type. Defaults to ‘application/octet-stream’. You can specify either a string or a symbol for a registered type register with Mime::Type.register, for example :json
:disposition - specifies whether the file will be shown inline or downloaded. Valid values are ‘inline’ and ‘attachment’ (default).
:status - specifies the status code to send with the response. Defaults to ‘200 OK’.
Generic data download:
send_data buffer
Download a dynamically-generated tarball:
send_data generate_tgz('dir'), :filename => 'dir.tgz'
Display an image Active Record in the browser:
send_data image.data, :type => image.content_type, :disposition => 'inline'
See send_file for more information on HTTP Content-* headers and caching.
Tip: if you want to stream large amounts of on-the-fly generated data to the browser, then use render :text => proc { ... } instead. See ActionController::Base#render for more information.
# File lib/action_controller/metal/streaming.rb, line 112 112: def send_data(data, options = {}) #:doc: 113: send_file_headers! options.dup 114: render options.slice(:status, :content_type).merge(:text => data) 115: end
Sends the file. This uses a server-appropriate method (such as X-Sendfile) via the Rack::Sendfile middleware. The header to use is set via config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header, and defaults to “X-Sendfile”. Your server can also configure this for you by setting the X-Sendfile-Type header.
Be careful to sanitize the path parameter if it is coming from a web page. send_file(params[:path]) allows a malicious user to download any file on your server.
Options:
:filename - suggests a filename for the browser to use. Defaults to File.basename(path).
:type - specifies an HTTP content type. Defaults to ‘application/octet-stream’. You can specify either a string or a symbol for a registered type register with Mime::Type.register, for example :json
:disposition - specifies whether the file will be shown inline or downloaded. Valid values are ‘inline’ and ‘attachment’ (default).
:status - specifies the status code to send with the response. Defaults to ‘200 OK’.
:url_based_filename - set to true if you want the browser guess the filename from the URL, which is necessary for i18n filenames on certain browsers (setting :filename overrides this option).
The default Content-Type and Content-Disposition headers are set to download arbitrary binary files in as many browsers as possible. IE versions 4, 5, 5.5, and 6 are all known to have a variety of quirks (especially when downloading over SSL).
Simple download:
send_file '/path/to.zip'
Show a JPEG in the browser:
send_file '/path/to.jpeg', :type => 'image/jpeg', :disposition => 'inline'
Show a 404 page in the browser:
send_file '/path/to/404.html', :type => 'text/html; charset=utf-8', :status => 404
Read about the other Content-* HTTP headers if you’d like to provide the user with more information (such as Content-Description) in www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.11.
Also be aware that the document may be cached by proxies and browsers. The Pragma and Cache-Control headers declare how the file may be cached by intermediaries. They default to require clients to validate with the server before releasing cached responses. See www.mnot.net/cache_docs/ for an overview of web caching and www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.9 for the Cache-Control header spec.
# File lib/action_controller/metal/streaming.rb, line 66 66: def send_file(path, options = {}) #:doc: 67: raise MissingFile, "Cannot read file #{path}" unless File.file?(path) and File.readable?(path) 68: 69: options[:filename] ||= File.basename(path) unless options[:url_based_filename] 70: send_file_headers! options 71: 72: if options[:x_sendfile] 73: ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn(":x_sendfile is no longer needed in send_file", caller) 74: end 75: 76: self.status = options[:status] || 200 77: self.content_type = options[:content_type] if options.key?(:content_type) 78: self.response_body = File.open(path, "rb") 79: end
# File lib/action_controller/metal/streaming.rb, line 118 118: def send_file_headers!(options) 119: options.update(DEFAULT_SEND_FILE_OPTIONS.merge(options)) 120: [:type, :disposition].each do |arg| 121: raise ArgumentError, ":#{arg} option required" if options[arg].nil? 122: end 123: 124: if options.key?(:length) 125: ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn("You do not need to provide the file's length", caller) 126: end 127: 128: disposition = options[:disposition] 129: disposition += %(; filename="#{options[:filename]}") if options[:filename] 130: 131: content_type = options[:type] 132: 133: if content_type.is_a?(Symbol) 134: extension = Mime[content_type] 135: raise ArgumentError, "Unknown MIME type #{options[:type]}" unless extension 136: self.content_type = extension 137: else 138: self.content_type = content_type 139: end 140: 141: headers.merge!( 142: 'Content-Disposition' => disposition, 143: 'Content-Transfer-Encoding' => 'binary' 144: ) 145: 146: response.sending_file = true 147: 148: # Fix a problem with IE 6.0 on opening downloaded files: 149: # If Cache-Control: no-cache is set (which Rails does by default), 150: # IE removes the file it just downloaded from its cache immediately 151: # after it displays the "open/save" dialog, which means that if you 152: # hit "open" the file isn't there anymore when the application that 153: # is called for handling the download is run, so let's workaround that 154: response.cache_control[:public] ||= false 155: end
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