Method: ActionController::Live#send_stream

Defined in:
actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/live.rb

#send_stream(filename:, disposition: "attachment", type: nil) ⇒ Object

Sends a stream to the browser, which is helpful when you’re generating exports or other running data where you don’t want the entire file buffered in memory first. Similar to send_data, but where the data is generated live.

Options:

  • :filename - suggests a filename for the browser to use.

  • :type - specifies an HTTP content type. You can specify either a string or a symbol for a registered type with Mime::Type.register, for example :json. If omitted, type will be inferred from the file extension specified in :filename. If no content type is registered for the extension, the default type ‘application/octet-stream’ will be used.

  • :disposition - specifies whether the file will be shown inline or downloaded. Valid values are ‘inline’ and ‘attachment’ (default).

Example of generating a csv export:

send_stream(filename: "subscribers.csv") do |stream|
  stream.write "email_address,updated_at\n"

  @subscribers.find_each do |subscriber|
    stream.write "#{subscriber.email_address},#{subscriber.updated_at}\n"
  end
end



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# File 'actionpack/lib/action_controller/metal/live.rb', line 351

def send_stream(filename:, disposition: "attachment", type: nil)
  payload = { filename: filename, disposition: disposition, type: type }
  ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument("send_stream.action_controller", payload) do
    response.headers["Content-Type"] =
      (type.is_a?(Symbol) ? Mime[type].to_s : type) ||
      Mime::Type.lookup_by_extension(File.extname(filename).downcase.delete("."))&.to_s ||
      "application/octet-stream"

    response.headers["Content-Disposition"] =
      ActionDispatch::Http::ContentDisposition.format(disposition: disposition, filename: filename)

    yield response.stream
  end
ensure
  response.stream.close
end