Generate download file link in PHP [duplicate]

Answer 1

In the case of a PDF file, most browsers are going to look for the helper (acrobat) to load it in your browser by default. You are trying to get around this default behavior is my guess.

The easiest way to do this (assuming you're on *nix box with apache) is to make an .htaccess file in the directory you want to have this result and add the line:

AddType application/octet-stream .pdf

This will cause any file with the extention .pdf to download by default. You can even have some .pdf files on the page load in the browser while others download by using the FilesMatch directive ( http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/using-filesmatch-and-files-in-htaccess.html ).

I realize your original question said "how do I do it with PHP" but I thought I'd post in case you were looking for a simpler, more elegant solution. Do keep in mind any directives you put in an .htaccess file will also affect any sub-directories below it.

Answer 2

$filename = 'Test.pdf'; // of course find the exact filename....        
header('Pragma: public');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Cache-Control: private', false); // required for certain browsers 
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');

header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'. basename($filename) . '";');
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filename));

readfile($filename);

exit;

Name the above file as download.php

HTML:

<a href="download.php">Test.pdf</a>

That should do it.

Answer 3

<a href="test.pdf">test.pdf</a>