Browser crashes while downloading large size files

Question

I have a web api that reads a file from azure and downloads it into a byte array. The client receives this byte array and downloads it as pdf. This does not work well with large files. I am not able to figure out how can I send the bytes in chunks from web api to client.

Below is the web api code which just returns the byte array to client:

        CloudBlockBlob blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(fileName);
        blockBlob.FetchAttributes();
        byte[] data = new byte[blockBlob.Properties.Length];
        blockBlob.DownloadToByteArray(data, 0);
        return report;

Client side code gets the data when ajax request completes, creates a hyperlink and set its download attribute which downloads the file:

var a = document.createElement("a");
a.href = 'data:application/pdf;base64,' + data.$value;;
a.setAttribute("download", filename);

The error occurred for a file of 1.86 MB.

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Answer 1

The issue is most likely your server running out of memory on these large files. Don't load the entire file into a variable only to then send it out as the response. This causes a double download, your server has to download it from azure storage and keep it in memory, then your client has to download it from the server. You can do a stream to stream copy instead so memory is not chewed up. Here is an example from your WebApi Controller.

public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> GetPdf()
{
    //normally us a using statement for streams, but if you use one here, the stream will be closed before your client downloads it.

    Stream stream;
    try
    {
        //container setup earlier in code

        var blockBlob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(fileName);

        stream = await blockBlob.OpenReadAsync();

        //Set your response as the stream content from Azure Storage
        response.Content = new StreamContent(stream);
        response.Content.Headers.ContentLength = stream.Length;

        //This could change based on your file type
        response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/pdf");
    }
    catch (HttpException ex)
    {
        //A network error between your server and Azure storage
        return this.Request.CreateErrorResponse((HttpStatusCode)ex.GetHttpCode(), ex.Message);
    }
    catch (StorageException ex)
    {
        //An Azure storage exception
        return this.Request.CreateErrorResponse((HttpStatusCode)ex.RequestInformation.HttpStatusCode, "Error getting the requested file.");
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        //catch all exception...log this, but don't bleed the exception to the client
        return this.Request.CreateErrorResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, "Bad Request");
    }
    finally
    {
        stream = null;
    }
}

I have used (almost exactly) this code and have been able to download files well over 1GB in size.