Could a controller return binary data?

Question

This is my javascript request:

var XHR = new XMLHttpRequest();
XHR.responseType = 'blob';
XHR.addEventListener('readystatechange', function() {
    if (XHR.readyState == 4) {
        if (XHR.status == 200) {
            var blob = new Blob([XHR.response], {type: "application/mp3"});
            var url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
            var a = document.createElement('a');
            a.href = url;
            a.download = 'Myfile.mp3';
            a.click();
            window.URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
        } else {
            document.getElementById(regidrs).innerHTML = "Error: " + XHR.responseText;
        }
    }
});

var FD  = new FormData();
FD.append('uuid', uuid);
XHR.open('POST', '/fetch');
XHR.send(FD);

This is my module routing:

my_module/my_module.routing.yml

my_module.content:
  path: '/fetch'
  defaults:
    _controller: '\Drupal\my_module\Controller\MyController::content'
    _title: 'Hello World'
  requirements:
    _permission: 'access content'

And my controller:

<?php

namespace Drupal\my_module\Controller;

use Drupal\Core\Controller\ControllerBase;
use Drupal\Core\Form\drupal_set_message;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Exception\NotFoundHttpException;

/**
 * Defines HelloController class.
 */
class MyController extends ControllerBase {

  /**
   * Display the markup.
   *
   * @return array
   *   Return markup array.
   */
  public function content() {
     ...
        $response= file_get_contents(....);
        $file = file_save_data($response, "public://myaudiofile.mp3", FILE_EXISTS_REPLACE);
     ...
     return [
      '#type' => 'markup',
      '#markup' => $response,
    ];
  }

}

But file_get_contents returns a mp3 file, and I need to pass this mp3 to the javascript httpresponse in order to donwload it. Saving $response to a file, I have checked the file is ok.

How can I do it?

Answer 1

With the BinaryFileResponse class, you can return the content of a file in the response. The FileDownloadController class is an example of controller returning the content of a file. It's the controller for /system/files/{scheme}, /system/files/{filepath}, and /system/temporary.
See its FileDownloadController::download() method.

public function download(Request $request, $scheme = 'private') {
  $target = $request->query
    ->get('file');

  // Merge remaining path arguments into relative file path.
  $uri = $scheme . '://' . $target;
  if (file_stream_wrapper_valid_scheme($scheme) && file_exists($uri)) {

    // Let other modules provide headers and controls access to the file.
    $headers = $this
      ->moduleHandler()
      ->invokeAll('file_download', [
      $uri,
    ]);
    foreach ($headers as $result) {
      if ($result == -1) {
        throw new AccessDeniedHttpException();
      }
    }
    if (count($headers)) {

      // \Drupal\Core\EventSubscriber\FinishResponseSubscriber::onRespond()
      // sets response as not cacheable if the Cache-Control header is not
      // already modified. We pass in FALSE for non-private schemes for the
      // $public parameter to make sure we don't change the headers.
      return new BinaryFileResponse($uri, 200, $headers, $scheme !== 'private');
    }
    throw new AccessDeniedHttpException();
  }
  throw new NotFoundHttpException();
}

The ExportForm class is another example of how to return a file, even if it's a form class. What changes is how the response is used, but how the BinaryFileResponse class is used is still relevant for a controller.
The relevant code is the following one, in ExportForm::submitForm().

$response = new BinaryFileResponse($uri);
$response->setContentDisposition('attachment', $filename);

Answer 2

You are 99% there, just return a redirect to the file:

class MyController extends ControllerBase {

  public function content() {
     ...
        $response = file_get_contents(....);
        $file = file_save_data($mp3, "public://myaudiofile.mp3", FILE_EXISTS_REPLACE);
     ...
    return new RedirectResponse( file_create_url('public://myaudiofile.mp3'));

  }

}