Create downloadable CSV from web search using PHP and mySQL - php

Question

I am trying to create a CSV file that can be downloaded by the user and not have the data permanently saved on the server.
I am using mySQL and PHP for this page. I get the data in the right format to show up ("echo") on the webpage but not able to get the file to generate/download...maybe I am missing something or looking in the wrong place but any help would be great!
I have been trying several script both my own and others I have found but the one I currently have is below:
$file = 'export';
$colresult = mysql_query("SHOW COLUMNS FROM ".$tbl_name."");
if (mysql_num_rows($colresult) > 0) {
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($colresult)){
$csv_output .= $row['Field'].", "; $i++; } } $csv_output .= "\n";
$csvresult = mysql_query($sql);
while ($rowr = mysql_fetch_row($csvresult)) {
for ($j=0;$j<$i;$j++) { $csv_output .= $rowr[$j].", ";
}
$csv_output .= "\n"; }
$filename = $file."_".date("Y-m-d_H-i",time()).".csv";
header("Content-type: application/csv");
header("Content-disposition: attachment;filename=".$filename.".csv");
readfile("../documents/csv/".$filename.".csv");
$fp = fopen($filename, 'w');
foreach($csvret as $csvret){
fputcsv($fp, $csvret);
}
print $csv_output;
print $filename;
Thanks!

Answer 1

You'll need to pass some headers to force the web browser to recognize the file as "downloadable":
<?php
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header("Content-Type: application/csv");
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($filename).'"');
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Connection: Keep-Alive');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filename));
readfile($filename);
exit;
Simply add that code in place of:
print $csv_output;
print $filename;