angularjs - Downloading excel file using MVC 5 and WebAPI -

here's i'm using: angularjs, breezejs on client side. server, i'm using web api , mvc 5.

i've been searching ways on how build , retrieve excel spreadsheet server, i'm @ loss.

i found plugin called linqtocsv helps in building csv file out of linq. codeproject example found here , nuget link found here.

i found nice useage on question on stackover flow: web api httpresponsemessage content return incomplete

so after implementing above plugin - linq csv, , following mentioned stackover question, nothing seems working.

here server side code (both taken directly link mentioned already):

    [httppost]     public httpresponsemessage distributorreport(jobject formvalues)     {         try         {             var cqmo = formvalues.toobject<distributorcqmo>();              var query = new finddistributorsbylocationquery             {                 states = cqmo.states.select(x => x.id),                 cities = cqmo.cities.select(x => x.id),                 citiesexclusion = cqmo.excludedcities.select(x => x.id),                 zipcodes = cqmo.zipcodes.select(x => x.id),                 zipcodesexclusion = cqmo.excludedzipcodes.select(x => x.id),                 productfamily = cqmo.productfamily.id,                 productsubfamilies = cqmo.productsubfamily.select(x => x.id),                 matchallfilter = cqmo.matchallfilter,                 clienttypefilter = cqmo.clienttypefilter             };                ienumerable<distributordto> distributors = this.queryprocessor.process(query).asqueryable();              csvfiledescription outputfiledescription = new csvfiledescription             {                 separatorchar = '\t', // tab delimited                 firstlinehascolumnnames = true             };               httpresponsemessage response = new httpresponsemessage(httpstatuscode.ok)             {                 content = new csvcontent<distributordto>(outputfiledescription,                                                            "observertriplist.csv",                                                             distributors)             };              return response;          }           catch (exception ex)           {               // logger.errorexception("exception exporting excel file: ", ex);               return request.createresponse(httpstatuscode.internalservererror);           }      } 

and here's helper class:

public class csvcontent<t> : httpcontent {     private readonly memorystream _stream = new memorystream();     public csvcontent(csvfiledescription outputfiledescription, string filename, ienumerable<t> data)     {         var cc = new csvcontext();         var writer = new streamwriter(_stream);         cc.write(data, writer, outputfiledescription);         writer.flush();         _stream.position = 0;          headers.contenttype = new mediatypeheadervalue("application/octet-stream");         headers.contentdisposition = new contentdispositionheadervalue("attachment");         headers.contentdisposition.filename = filename;      }     protected override task serializetostreamasync(stream stream, transportcontext context)     {         return _stream.copytoasync(stream);     }      protected override bool trycomputelength(out long length)     {         length = _stream.length;         return true;     } } 

i tried using breeze make post, returns data wrapped in breeze object, , if after digging returned object, it's httpreponse property, you'll see in raw form, tabbed delimited data, however, content application in application/json; charset=utf-8 , not of excel formatting.

edit:

i have following working:

    $.ajax({         type: 'post',         url: 'mappingtool.api/api/report/distributorreport',         data: json.stringify(jsondata),         contenttype: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',         datatype: 'json',         success: function (returnvalue) {             alert("success")            // window.location = '/reports/download?file=' + returnvalue;             }     }); 

i'm getting correct response , able view results in fiddler , in chrome debugger. how browser download file automatically?

any feedback appreciated!

edit:

is should fetching mvc controller or api controller? seems there more support mvc controller, fileresult type can used in mvc; give me automatic download: "exporting excel file view mvc" i've seen being done using api controller; isn't point of api controller delegate simple data types, , not media content?