Methods for sending arbitrary data and for streaming files to the browser, instead of rendering.
Instance Private methods
send_data(data, options = {}) Link
Sends the given binary data to the browser. This method is similar to render plain: 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 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 withMime::Type.register
, for example :json. If omitted, type will be inferred from the file extension specified in:filename
. If no content type is registered for the extension, the default type 'application/octet-stream' will be used. -
: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.
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.
send_file(path, options = {}) Link
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
. 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 toFile.basename(path)
. -
:type
- specifies an HTTP content type. You can specify either a string or a symbol for a registered type withMime::Type.register
, for example :json. If omitted, the type will be inferred from the file extension specified in:filename
. If no content type is registered for the extension, the default type 'application/octet-stream' will be used. -
: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. -
:url_based_filename
- set totrue
if you want the browser to 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', disposition: 'inline', 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 actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/data_streaming.rb, line 69 def send_file(path, options = {}) #:doc: raise MissingFile, "Cannot read file #{path}" unless File.file?(path) && File.readable?(path) options[:filename] ||= File.basename(path) unless options[:url_based_filename] send_file_headers! options self.status = options[:status] || 200 self.content_type = options[:content_type] if options.key?(:content_type) response.send_file path end