Using MVC3 AJAX call to ActionResults fails when returning a File - ajax

Question

I have an action result that returns a created File object (simplified for display!):
public ActionResult Create(int recID, int templateID)
{
//Get dbRecord from recID
DBRecord dbRecord = db.dbRecord.Find(recID);
//Get Template from templateID
Template template = db.Templates.Find(templateID);
if (template == null) throw new FileLoadException(string.Format("No database record found for template reference {0}",templateID));
//set fileOutput details
WordFile fileOutput = new WordFile(dbRecord, Server.MapPath("~/Documents/"),template);
//Create XML object for Template
XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
//Save resulting document
xDoc.InnerXml = mergeData(template,dbRecord);
xDoc.Save(fileOutput.fullName);
if (!System.IO.File.Exists(fileOutput.fullName)) throw new FileNotFoundException(string.Format("File {0} could not be created", fileOutput.fileName));
//Return saved document
return File(fileOutput.fullName, "application/doc", fileOutput.fileName);
}
If I call this via an HTML RouteLink
<%: Html.RouteLink("Generate via HTML
, "GenerateDocument"
, new RouteValueDictionary(
new {
controller = "Template"
, action = "Create"
, recID = 1
,templateID = 1
}
)
)%>
Edit 1: It works fine, the document is generated and the user is prompted to open, save, etc. However, if I call it via an AJAX RouteLink, the code steps through, the document is created on the server, but the user is not prompted to open or save.
<%: Ajax.RouteLink("Generate via AJAX"
, "GenerateDocument"
, new RouteValueDictionary(
new {
controller = "Template"
, action = "Create"
, recID = 1
, templateID = 1 }
)
, new AjaxOptions
{
HttpMethod="POST"
, LoadingElementId="Refresh"
})%>
Is there an inherent restriction that prevents AJAX returning a file type or have I missed the right search combination to find an obvious answer?

Answer 1

I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. Are you trying to return the file contents to a javascript variable? That is the only thing I can imagine an "AJAX RouteLink" would be good for. If you want it to prompt the user to open or save, use a normal link. If you're trying to embed the file in the page, don't return the file, return the html that you would use to do the embedding.