How to download a file from server machine to client machine using jsp

Question

Hi,
In my application, I have an excel file stored on my server machine. How can I download that excel file on to my client machine using jsp. Is there any other way I can open that file from my machine and save it in my machine using jsp/java?
Its an emergency for me to do this.
Can anyone provide me the full code to download a file from server machine as I don't have
time to browse through various sites.
thanks in advance,
Tiijnar

Answer 1

Please post your code using code tags (click on CODE above the text area, when posting)
response.setContentType("application/octet-stream");Why octet-stream? Set the correct mime-type.
String disHeader = "Attachment; Filename=\"filename\"";The filename should just be the file's name. Not the complete path to the file! This will tell anyone where the file is located on the server. It's also inconvenient because by default,the browser will suggest it as the name for the download.
Your way of writing to the output stream is just plain wrong. See this snippet (picked from [http://balusc.blogspot.com/2007/07/fileservlet.html])
        BufferedInputStream input = null;
        BufferedOutputStream output = null;
        try {
            // Open streams.
            input = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file), DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);
            output = new BufferedOutputStream(response.getOutputStream(), DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);
            // Write file contents to response.
            byte[] buffer = new byte[DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE];
            int length;
            while ((length = input.read(buffer)) > 0) {
                output.write(buffer, 0, length);
            // Finalize task.
            output.flush();
        } finally {
            // Gently close streams.
            close(output);
            close(input);
        }