Found a solution! A well written tutorial here was exactly what I was looking for!

http://umbracodevelopers.sdesign1dev.co.uk/2015/7/30/ajax-newsletter-sign-up/

This may be old, but this is how I solved it:

I created an export button with angular with exportForms as the action

exportForms: function(type) {
            return $http.post("backoffice/MySection/ExportAction/export");
        }

I then built an authorization handler. Just something simple to check if the user was logged in

public class AuthorizationHandler
{
    public static bool UserLoggedIn()
    {
        var httpCtxWrapper = new HttpContextWrapper(HttpContext.Current);
        var umbTicket = httpCtxWrapper.GetUmbracoAuthTicket();
        if (umbTicket == null || umbTicket.Name.IsEmpty() || umbTicket.Expired)
            return false;
        return true;
    }
}

Then I built a surface controller which throws an unauthorized if someone is not logged in.

public class ExportActionsController : SurfaceController
{
    public ActionResult Export(string type)
    {
        if (AuthorizationHandler.UserLoggedIn())
        {
            var query = //my sql statement here
            var forms = DatabaseContext.Database.Fetch<dynamic>(query);

            ExcelService.ExportForm(forms, type);

            if (HttpContext.Request.UrlReferrer != null)
            {
                return Redirect(HttpContext.Request.UrlReferrer.AbsoluteUri);
            }
            return Redirect("/#/MySection");
        }
        else
        {
            throw new HttpException(401, "Unauthorized access");
        }
    }
}

Then I had to handle the exporting. I like to use closedXML.

I'm modifying this code a bit because my original is a bit more complex.

    public class ExcelService
   {
       public static void ExportForm<T>(IEnumerable<T> forms, string filename)
      {
        XLWorkbook wb = new XLWorkbook();

        //this handles exporting my data into a datatable. You have to build this yourself.
        DataTable dt = ToDataTable(forms.ToList());

        //adds a worksheet with the data and the filename is the sheet name
        wb.Worksheets.Add(dt, filename);

        //This handles the download.
        HttpResponse httpResponse = HttpContext.Current.Response;
        httpResponse.Clear();

        //tell it the content type
        httpResponse.ContentType = "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet";

        //give it your filename
        httpResponse.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=\"" + filename + " " + DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() + ".xlsx\"");

        MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();

        //save the workbook as a memory stream
        wb.SaveAs(memoryStream);

        //write file to users computer
        memoryStream.WriteTo(httpResponse.OutputStream);

        //never forget to close the stream and the response
        memoryStream.Close();

        httpResponse.End();
       }
    }

Hope that helps

Thanks Taylor, I'll take a look.

I did get a version working with some AngularJs magic but it's always worth exploring other options!

is working on a reply...