Retrieve values at the same time as file attachment download - php

Question

I have a form that triggers a file download:
function downloadEnhancedSubtitle ($subtitle,$totalSequences,$filename) {
// Build string
$subtitleString = '';
foreach ($subtitle as $thisSegmentKey => $segment) {
$sequenceString = $segment->sequence."\r\n";
$sequenceString .= formatMilliseconds($segment->startTimeInMilliseconds).' --> '.formatMilliseconds($segment->endTimeInMilliseconds)."\r\n";
if(isset($segment->textLine1)) $sequenceString .= utf8_decode($segment->textLine1)."\r\n";
if(isset($segment->textLine2)) $sequenceString .= utf8_decode($segment->textLine2)."\r\n";
if(isset($segment->textLine3)) $sequenceString .= utf8_decode($segment->textLine3)."\r\n";
$sequenceString .= "\r\n";
$subtitleString .= $sequenceString;
}
$subtitleString .= ($totalSequences+1)."\r\n99:99:90,000 --> 99:99:99,999\r\nEnhanced\r\n";
// Download string
header("Content-Type: text/plain;charset=windows-1252");
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$filename.'"');
header("Content-Length: " . strlen($subtitleString));
echo $subtitleString;
}
The user submits a subtitle file and it is "optimized" on the server and sent back to the user as an attachment download. But I would like at the same time (same form view where the file is downloaded) to trigger a modal with some data of the process, for example, how many lines where optimized.
As "Content-Disposition: attachment" automatically downloads everything printed on screen, is there any way I could retrieve the value of a variable using that response? Maybe changing everything to be an ajax request?
(using PHP on the backend)

Answer 1

Firstly you need to save file on server then you can get response with all variables, but it's one problem - you need to delete all generated files for safety.
function downloadEnhancedSubtitle ($subtitle,$totalSequences,$filename)
{
[...]
// Response for ajax
echo json_encode(
[
'filename' => $filename,
'link' => 'http://localhost/uploads/' . $filename,
'subtitle' => $subtitleString
]
);
}
Javascript (jQuery)
You are getting all your variables from server.
$.ajax({
[...],
success: function(response) {
// if response is not object
var obj = JSON.parse(response),
filename = obj.filename,
link = obj.link,
subtitle = obj.subtitle;
// if response is object
var filename = response.filename,
link = response.link,
subtitle = response.subtitle;
}
});