How do I provide a download for existing Excel with PHP? - php

Question

I have a generated xls file on my server that I would like to push to the client for download but can't seem to get it working. Here is what I have so far:
$xlsFile = 'test.xls';
header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Type: application/download");;
header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=$xlsFile");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary ");
exit();
My excel file is correct and can be opened if I open it from the server but how can I push this file to the client for download?

Answer 1

You seem to be overdoing it with your "Content-type" headers. Oh, and you need to actually send the file before exit()ing. All you need is
header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel");
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . $xlsFile . '"');
readfile($xlsFile);
exit();

Answer 2

See this older post on the correct MIME type to send with your upload:
Setting mime type for excel document

Answer 3

Sample function.
function file_download($filename, $mimetype='application/octet-stream') {
if (file_exists($filename)) {
// send headers
header($_SERVER["SERVER_PROTOCOL"] . ' 200 OK');
// type
header('Content-Type: ' . $mimetype);
// date of modified
header('Last-Modified: ' . gmdate('r', filemtime($filename)));
header('ETag: ' . sprintf('%x-%x-%x', fileinode($filename), filesize($filename), filemtime($filename)));
// file size
header('Content-Length: ' . (filesize($filename)));
header('Connection: close');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($filename) . '";');
// send file
echo file_get_contents($filename);
} else {
header($_SERVER["SERVER_PROTOCOL"] . ' 404 Not Found');
header('Status: 404 Not Found');
}
exit;
}

Answer 4

You just need to add one more line
$xlsFile = 'test.xls';
header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excelapplication/vnd.ms-excel");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename='$xlsFile'");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary ");
echo file_get_contents($xlsFile);
exit();