So I'm trying to both dynamically create a .doc file and have the user download it when he clicks a button.
These are the headers i found to download a file
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
And these are the headers i found to make a a word document
header('Content-type: application/vnd.ms-word');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; Filename='.$myFile);
I'm just having a hard time just fitting the picture together because they both tasks have a 'Content-Type' header. Do i create the file first, save it, then download it? Or can i do it all (create a doc file and have user download it) in one php file?
You only need the "headers found to make a word document." The first set are for a generic streaming download.
Your second set of headers are fine. No need for the first. The Content-Disposition header is the one that will typically force a download. (Although, you should be aware that clients can do whatever they want with a file, and you have no direct control over this.)
You can create the file and send it straight to the client without saving it to the server's disk, depending on how you are creating this document.
Related
I'm trying to use readfile to download a file from the server.
The file definitely exists and when I use the URL in browser directly it downloads the correct file as predicted.
However when I do it with the following code, it download the file with the correct filename but it is completely blank in content, and zero bytyes.
I am wondering if this code is in fact incorrect and it is instead creating a new file, which of course would be blank.
function downloadFile($filename){
$downloadroot = 'http://my.url.co.uk/exports/'.$filename.'.csv';
header('Content-Type: application/csv');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.$filename.'.csv');
header('Pragma: no-cache');
readfile("$downloadroot");
}
What would be the cause of this? Is there an alternative way to download files from a URL without having to create some sort of "save target as" link?
You could use file_get_contents() see http://php.net/file_get_contents for the full details.
Or if it's only csv's you're trying to read:
http://php.net/manual/en/function.fgetcsv.php
I have a postgresql database table and using PHP for the backend. On the user interface, I provide users with a way of generating reports. What I want to do is that when a user wishes to generate a report, a CSV file should be provided for download.
I already know how to generate a CSV file for results of a query, but now in this case I don't want the file to be saved on disk. Instead, it should be downloaded by the browser.
You simply need to provide a page for download...
#downloadCSV.php?reportID=1
header('Content-Type: text/plain');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="yourfile.csv"');
// do your postgresql query and put the result into $csv
echo $csv;
In this way you don't have to create a real file on your server
The second header Content-Disposition: attachment; forces the browser to download a file instead to show the content in a page
On a webservice I'm developing, a user should be able to download his data in a HTML file. This file contains everything (including images as base64).
Now to make the user download this, I would have to create the file and save it on my webserver. Afterwards, I'd have to delete it using a cronjob, because I can't figure out when the download is complete.
Is there another way? Would it be possible to download a file to the user which does not physically exist on my webserver, but gets somehow created temporarily?
Thank you for your help!
As far as the WWW is concerned, there is no such thing as a file. There are just HTTP resources.
The server might get the data from a file, it might not.
Just output the data for the file from your PHP program. (i.e. by putting it outside <?php and ?> or using echo or any other technique that causes PHP to output something).
You need to make sure you use the right Content-Type header, but since you are using HTML, that is text/html which is the default.
You can add a Content-Disposition header if you want the user to be prompted to save their download somewhere instead of rendering the downloaded HTML in the browser window.
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='foo.html'");
<?php
// We'll be outputting a PDF
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
// It will be called downloaded.pdf
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="downloaded.pdf"');
// The PDF source is in original.pdf
readfile('original.pdf');
?>
From: http://php.net/manual/en/function.header.php
Hi I want to have the option on my site for the user to download a CSV file. I have used the code below
<input type="button" value="Download as CSV file" window.location.href='call_log.csv' " />
This does work but when the button is clicked the file is opened in another tab on my browser, What I want to happen is a download straight to the users default download folder
I posted this question before and the response was to include headers ie
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="call_log.csv"
The page is a php file and if I include headers the page does not load but trys to download the whole page .
Surely I cant put headers in the CSV file , can anyone help me please ?
Thanks
Your server needs to bet set to execute your php script - you're right; there's no need to change that.
What you need to do is send the correct header to the server from your php script. Here's an example from php.net:
<?php
// We'll be outputting a PDF
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
// It will be called downloaded.pdf
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="downloaded.pdf"');
// The PDF source is in original.pdf
readfile('original.pdf');
?>
For your csv file, the correct content type is text/csv
I have a script that generates data in csv format which is sent to the user along with a set of headers that tell the browser it is a .csv file. Everything works great when users (left)click on the link to the script, they are presented with a download dialog with the filename ending in .csv and it suggests using excel, or calc, to open it. However, when users right-click and choose Save As it is being saved with the php script name.
Here is the header code:
header("Pragma: public");
header("Expires: 0"); // set expiration time
header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Type: application/download");
$val = date("m_d_Y_g_i");
Header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="personal_information_'.$val.'.csv"');
So again, when users left-click it saves the file as personal_information_date.csv; when they right click it saves as download.php. I'm using FF3. Oddly enough, IE7 does not have this problem.
Any ideas?
Use mod_rewrite to alias the file from file.csv to file.php, this is a browser issue rather than PHP because by saving the file it isn't running it before it is saving it.
So to summarise:
Link to personal_information_date.csv
Create a mod_rewrite rule that forwards personal_information_date.csv to download.php (e.g.: RewriteRule ^personal_information_date.csv$ download.php).
The HTTP client may ignore more than one content type header, the two other will be ignored - which of them? Depends on the browser implementation, therefor the different behaviour. The correct mime type is text/csv, not application/octet-stream! The content-disposition header is correct for the download.
I believe that setting three different mimetypes doesn't help
what's $val ? Is this known content or user provided - e.g. could it contain nasty characters (like ") or even linebreaks, e.g. introduce new HTTP header lines?
have a look at the HTTP-Headers that arrive at the client. Either the Firefox built-in information or use LiveHttpHeaders (plugin to be found at the Mozilla site - logs all HTTP-Headers) - I'm sure there are more/other plugins for FF available.
Hope this helps.