download - Post Back does not work after writing files to response in ASP.NET

Question

What I have?

I have an ASP.NET page which allows the user to download file a on a button click. User can select the file he wants from a list of available files (RadioButtonList) and clicks on download button to download it. (I should not provide link for each file that can be downloaded - this is the requirement).

What do I want?

I want the user to download multiple files one by one by selecting the required radio button and clicking on the button.

What problem am I facing?

I can download the file for the first time properly. But, after downloading, if I select some other file and click on the button to download it, click event of the button does not post back and the second file will not be downloaded.

I use the following code on the button click event:

protected void btnDownload_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string viewXml = exporter.Export();
    Response.Clear();
    Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=views.cov");
    Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", viewXml.Length.ToString());
    Response.ContentType = "text/plain";
    Response.Write(viewXml);
    Response.End();
}

Am I doing something wrong here?

Same problem can be replicated in IE6, IE7 and Chrome. I think this problem is browser independent.

Answer 1

I had this same issue with sharepoint. I have a button on the page that sends a file and after clicking the button, the rest of the form was unresponsive. Turns out it is a sharepoint thing that sets the variable _spFormOnSubmitCalled to true to prevent any further submits. When we send a file this doesn't refresh the page so we need to manually set this variable back to false.

On your button in the webpart set the OnClientClick to a function in your javascript for the page.

 <asp:Button ID="generateExcel" runat="server" Text="Export Excel" 
OnClick="generateExcel_Click" CssClass="rptSubmitButton"
OnClientClick="javascript:setFormSubmitToFalse()" />

Then in the javascript I have this function.

function setFormSubmitToFalse() {
    setTimeout(function () { _spFormOnSubmitCalled = false; }, 3000);
    return true;
}

The 3 second pause I found was necessary because otherwise I was setting the variable before sharepoint set it. This way I let sharepoint set it normally then I set it back to false right after.