How to upload and download File using MVC

In this article I am going to explain how to upload and download File using MVC.

 In previous article I have explained how to show/display message in MVC, how toget Date, Time, Day, Month, Year, Hour, Minute and Second from date in Sqlserver and how to read JSON or txt file data and display using AngularJs.

 Description:

I want to upload multiple files and can download them.  I want to save the file path to database and file to server.

Implementation:

 I have created a table tb_file.

Id	int
FileName	varchar(200)
Filepath	varchar(MAX)

Add a new MVC project.  I am using database first approach. Add entity data model for project.

Model (Tb_file.cs):

   public partial class Tb_File

    {

        public int Id { get; set; }

        public string FileName { get; set; }

        public string Filepath { get; set; }

    }

Add Controller

Now add an empty controller. Create action to upload file and download file.

Complete code of Controller:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Mvc;

using MVC_Project.Models;

using System.IO;

namespace MVC_Project.Controllers

{

  

    public class FileController : Controller

    {

        DemoEntities1 db = new DemoEntities1();

        public ActionResult Index()

        {

            return View();          

        }

      

 [HttpPost]

        public ActionResult Index(IEnumerable<HttpPostedFileBase> files, Tb_File objfile)

        {

            foreach (var file in files)

            {

                if (file != null && file.ContentLength > 0)

                {

                    var fileName = Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);

                    var filepath = Guid.NewGuid().ToString() + fileName;

                    var path = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath("~/uploads"), filepath);

                    file.SaveAs(path);

                    objfile.FileName = fileName;

                    objfile.Filepath = "~/uploads/" + filepath;

                    db.Tb_File.Add(objfile);

                    db.SaveChanges();

                }

            }

            return View();

        }

       

   //download

 public ActionResult Download()

        {

            var file = db.Tb_File.ToList();

            return View(file);

        }

        

 public FileResult DownloadFile(string id)

        {

            int fid = Convert.ToInt32(id);

            string filename = (from f in db.Tb_File

                               where f.Id == fid

                               select f.Filepath).First();

            return File(filename, System.Net.Mime.MediaTypeNames.Application.Octet, filename);

        }

        }

            }

Add View

Now add view for Index and download action.

Index.cshtml:

@{

    ViewBag.Title = "Upload File's";

}                  

   @using (Html.BeginForm("", "", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" }))

                      {

                          <table>

                              <tr>

                                  <td>Upload File :</td>

                                  <td><input type="file" name="files" multiple="multiple" /></td>

                              </tr>

                              <tr>

                                  <td></td>

                                  <td></td>

                              </tr>

                              <tr>

                                  <td></td>

                                  <td><input type="submit" value="Upload File" /></td>

                              </tr>

                          </table>

                      }

Download.cshtml

@model IEnumerable<MVC_Project.Models.Tb_File>

@{

    ViewBag.Title = "Download";

}

<table class="table">

    <tr>

        <th>

            @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.FileName)

        </th>

        <th>           

        </th>

        <th></th>

    </tr>

@foreach (var item in Model) {

    <tr>

        <td>

            @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.FileName)

        </td>

        <td></td>

        <td>

            @Html.ActionLink("Download", "DownloadFile", new { id = item.Id })

        </td>

    </tr>

}

</table>

Now build the project and run. To test it upload files and download them.