php download file: header() - php

Question

I need some eduction please.
At the end of each month, I want to download some data from my webserver to my local PC.
So, I've written a little script for that, which selects the data from the DB.
Next, I want to download it.
I've tried this:
$file=$month . '.txt';
$handle=fopen($file, "w");
header("Content-Type: application/text");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment, filename=" . $month . '.txt');
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($res))
{
$writestring = $row['data_I_want'] . "\r\n";
fwrite($handle, $writestring);
}
fclose($handle);
If I run this, then the file is created, but my file doesn't contain the data that I want. Instead I get a dump from the HTML-file in my browser..
What am I doing wrong..
Thanks,
Xpoes

Answer 1

Below script will help you download the file created
//Below is where you create particular month's text file
$file=$month . '.txt';
$handle=fopen($file, "w");
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($res)){
$writestring = $row['data_I_want'] . "\r\n";
fwrite($handle, $writestring);
}
fclose($handle);
//Now the file is ready with data from database
//Add below to download the text file created
$filename = $file; //name of the file
$filepath = $file; //location of the file. I have put $file since your file is create on the same folder where this script is
header("Cache-control: private");
header("Content-type: application/force-download");
header("Content-transfer-encoding: binary\n");
header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"");
header("Content-Length: ".filesize($filepath));
readfile($filepath);
exit;

Answer 2

Your current code does not output a file, it just sends headers.
in order for your script to work add the following code after your fclose statement.
$data = file_get_contents($file);
echo $data;