Rails - Apr 2009 - Send some text as a csv file?

I have a table on a page, and i want a link to download the table data
as a csv.  One way to do this would be to have my model class build a
file, and pass the filename back to the controller, which uses send_file
to send it to the user.  But, this seems a bit heavy handed - it''s a
small amount of data, which is subject to change, and i don''t want a
load of files hanging around if i can help it.

Is there a simple way to just generate some text and push it back as a
file?  eg

1) use a simple view which is rendered normally in the controller, and
change the link_to tag to download the results instead of render it?
(if so, how do i set the filename?)

2) have a normal link_to tag and have the controller build the text
itself (it''s just going to be an array join effectively) and push the
text back as a file.

Any advice welcome - thanks!
max
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On Apr 29, 10:57 am, Max Williams
<rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> I have a table on a page, and i want a link to download the table data
> as a csv.  One way to do this would be to have my model class build a
> file, and pass the filename back to the controller, which uses send_file
> to send it to the user.  But, this seems a bit heavy handed - it''s
a
> small amount of data, which is subject to change, and i don''t want
a
> load of files hanging around if i can help it.
>
Have a look at send_data.

Fred
> Is there a simple way to just generate some text and push it back as a
> file?  eg
>
> 1) use a simple view which is rendered normally in the controller, and
> change the link_to tag to download the results instead of render it?
> (if so, how do i set the filename?)
>
> 2) have a normal link_to tag and have the controller build the text
> itself (it''s just going to be an array join effectively) and push
the
> text back as a file.
>
> Any advice welcome - thanks!
> max
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.