How to force the user to download a file, not to view it?

Question

I have a download page where i have kept musics, pictures, ebooks and etc. Whenever users click at the image it opens it, and same things happen with .pdf files if the user

Answer 1

With Apache mod_headers:

SetEnvIf Request_URI "([^/]+\.jpg)$" REQUESTED_FILE_BASENAME=$1
SetEnvIf Request_URI "([^/]+\.mp3)$" REQUESTED_FILE_BASENAME=$1
SetEnvIf Request_URI "([^/]+\.pdf)$" REQUESTED_FILE_BASENAME=$1
Header set Content-Disposition "attachment; filename=\"%{REQUESTED_FILE_BASENAME}e\"" env=REQUESTED_FILE_BASENAME

The instructions can be placed inside a .htaccess file which itself must go in the directory containing your media. You use just about any extension. The following line might also help against aggressive plugins:

Header set Content-Type "application/octet-stream" env=REQUESTED_FILE_BASENAME

Answer 2

You have to add a header to force the download.

header("Content-Disposition: Attachment")
header("Content-Disposition: Attachment;filename=FILENAME_HERE")

from http://www.symkat.com/force-download-with-http-headers

Answer 3

header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename=NAME_OF_YOUR_FILE');