Downloading PDF file with JQuery AJAX and PHP - php

Question

I already found many questions here in SO about the theme, but any of them helps me with a specific problem.
I need to send a ajax request to PHP and then download a PDF file.
This is my Javascript
$('body').on("click",'.download-file', function(e) {
e.stopPropagation();
var id = $(this).attr('data-id');
$.ajax({
url: 'app/myPage/download',// The framework will redirect it to index.php and then to myPage.class and method dowload
data: id,
type: 'POST',
success: function (return) {
console.log(return);
},
error: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
console.log("Error... " + textStatus + " " + errorThrown);
}
});
});
Here is my PHP file:
class myPage{
public function download()
{
$id = $_POST['id'];
$filePath = $this->methodToGetFile($id);
$name = end(explode('/',$filePath));
$fp = fopen($filePath, 'rb');
header("Cache-Control: ");
header("Pragma: ");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Length: " . filesize($filePath));
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='".$name."';");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary\n");
fpassthru($fp);
exit;
}
}
With this approach, I have the PDF "printed" in the console like
%PDF-1.5%����1 0 obj<</Type/Catalog/Pages 2 0 R/Lang(pt-BR) /StructTreeRoot 8 0 R/MarkInfo<</Marked true>>>> ....
So, I'd like to know what should I do to open this file and download it.
In the linked questions I see something about window.location, but I don't know how can I use it.
I've already tried change the PHP headers to try force the download, but no success with it. In these cases I just receive null in the javascript nothing happens. Here are the modified headers:
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');//tried with this option
//header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');// also tried with this other option
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=' . $name);
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Connection: Keep-Alive');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filePath));
Are there some good approach to do this?

Answer 1

i don't think this approach to downloading a pdf will work. Javascript is sending the request, and php is sending the response. You want the response to go directly to the browser, not to javascript. You should change the download link to go directly to the download location. No ajax / javascript needed. Like this:
download