How to return a file using Web API?

Question

I am using ASP.NET Web API.
I want to download a PDF with C# from the API (that the API generates).

Can I just have the API return a byte[]? and for the C# application can I just do:

byte[] pdf = client.DownloadData("urlToAPI");? 

and

File.WriteAllBytes()?

Answer 1

Better to return HttpResponseMessage with StreamContent inside of it.

Here is example:

public HttpResponseMessage GetFile(string id)
{
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(id))
        return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);

    string fileName;
    string localFilePath;
    int fileSize;

    localFilePath = getFileFromID(id, out fileName, out fileSize);
       
    HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
    response.Content = new StreamContent(new FileStream(localFilePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read));
    response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new System.Net.Http.Headers.ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment");
    response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition.FileName = fileName;
    response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/pdf");

    return response;
}

UPDATE from comment by patridge: Should anyone else get here looking to send out a response from a byte array instead of an actual file, you're going to want to use new ByteArrayContent(someData) instead of StreamContent (see here).