ActionController::Streaming

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