Download CSV from serverside to browser in Laravel 4 - php

Question

I'm using Laravel 4 framework, I have a function that creates a csv file called data_78888.csv the number 78888 changes everytime the function is run to generate a csv file. That function returns a string like that : "Download/78888"
The folder where my csv files are created is called "outputs" and is located in my project folder where the app folder is located to, (it is not in the public folder).
What I would like to do is to create a route that points to my Process controller like that :
Route::get('Download/{token}', array('uses' => 'ProcessController#downloadCSV'));
In my controller I would like to send that csv file to the browser to download it , I'm doing like that :
<?php
class ProcessController extends BaseController {
public function downloadCSV($token){
$fileToDownload = "data_".$token.".csv";
$filePath = "outputs/";
return Response::download($filePath, $fileToDownload, array(
'Content-Type' => 'text/csv',
'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment;filename="'.$fileToDownload
));
}
}
The issue is that this is not working and I get an html file called 78888.htm and an error on the server.
How can I make this working please?

Answer 1

The path to the file has to include the name and file extension of the file.
So try this;
$fileToDownload = "data_".$token.".csv";
$filePath = base_path() . "outputs/" . $fileToDownload;
return Response::download($filePath, $fileToDownload, array(
'Content-Type' => 'text/csv',
'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment;filename="'.$fileToDownload
));
Also make sure the file exists, before downloading.