CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-mvc
Euklides
Euklides

Reputation: 584

How to remove a file when ending a MVC application?

I am writing an application where the user will generate files which the user can view and then choose to download if it look OK. The application writes the file to server in the following way:

private void WriteTestFileToServer(MyFile file)
    {
        string serverPath = "~/MyFiles";
        string fileName = "/FileExport" + "_" + file.FromDate.ToString("yyyyMMdd") + "_" +
            file.ToDate.ToString("yyyyMMdd") + "_" + file.RunTime.ToString("yyyyMMdd") + ".txt";
        StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(Server.MapPath(serverPath + fileName), true);
        foreach (var row in file.Rows)
        {
            sw.WriteLine(row.ToFileFormat());
        }
        sw.Close();
    }

When the session ends, i.e. the user exits the browser I want all the files generated to be deleted. Is there any handler I can attach to do some clean up work? Or is there a better way to store the files during the session so that files do not have to be written to disk?

Note that I want to be able to access the file as a Href-link in the application.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 57

Answers (2)

hbulens
hbulens

Reputation: 1969

Add your code in the Global.asax.cs preserved Session_End method:

protected void Session_End(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
...
}

Or you could also use application-wide event:

protected void Application_End(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
...
}

Upvotes: 0

Catalin
Catalin

Reputation: 11721

You don't have too much control over when the Session expires.

One solution would be to save the file content in the user session, and display it on a controller action. The .net will take care of clearing the session for you.

public ActionResult GetFile()
{
    // file content from session
    string fileContent = (string)HttpContext.Session["file"]; 

    byte[] contentAsBytes = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding().GetBytes(fileContent);
    return File(contentAsBytes, "text/plain");
}

Upvotes: 1

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