Creating a download link

Pádraig · #1 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 17:55

Hello.

I was wondering how you create a download link. For example if someone wanted to download a (X)HTML and CSS file that was zipped up, how would I code this.

Thanks,
Padraig.

karinne · #2 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 18:15

hmmm ... a simple link would do?!

Code: Select all

<a href="something.zip">some code in zip</a>

or maybe I'm not understanding the question!?

Pádraig · #3 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 18:24

That worked for me.

Thanks Karinne!

Ryan Fait · #4 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 22:17

If you don't want to zip it, you can force a browser to download a file using PHP (ie, like an HTML page that a browser would normally try to render).

Pádraig · #5 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 22:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan Fait

If you don't want to zip it, you can force a browser to download a file using PHP (ie, like an HTML page that a browser would normally try to render).

Do you know where I can find any useful tutorials that explains how to do this?

Ryan Fait · #6 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 22:35

PHP: Select all


<?php

$f = fopen("file.html", "rb"); // path to file on server
$content_len = (int) filesize("file.html"); // path to file on server
$content_file = fread($f, $content_len);
fclose($f);

$output_file = 'file.html'; // the name of the file when downloaded

@ob_end_clean();
@ini_set('zlib.output_compression', 'Off');
header('Pragma: public');

header('Last-Modified: '.gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s') . ' GMT');
header('Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate');
header('Cache-Control: pre-check=0, post-check=0, max-age=0');
header('Cache-Control: private');
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: none');
header('Content-Type: application/octetstream; name="'.$output_file.'"');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="'.$output_file.'"');
header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename="'.$output_file.'"');
header("Content-length: $content_len");

echo $content_file;
exit();

?>

Pádraig · #7 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 22:47

Thanks a lot for that, Ryan!

I will try and learn some php soon.

Ryan Fait · #8 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 22:51

No problem. To use that script, put it in an empty text file with the extension .php. If you link to that file in a browser, it will download whatever file is referenced in the first couple of lines.

Just be careful with it, though. Don't leave it open ended where someone can choose a file to download anywhere on your server. That PHP script can access anything on your server, regardless of whether it's in a password protected directory or out of your root directory.

Pádraig · #9 (**permalink**) May 29th, 2007, 22:55

I'll definetly have a look at some php tutorials before trying something like this. I'll save that script to my computer in the mean time. Thanks again for the help and the script.

Pádraig.

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Creating a download link