Question

I have an HTML select form that populates my list with elements found in my database like so:

    <form action="" method="POST">
    <select name="item_select">
    <?php 
    $query = "SELECT * FROM files_table";
    $result = mysql_query($query);
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) { 
    ?>
        <option value=<?php echo $row->id; ?> > <?php echo $row->file_name;  ></option>
        <?php }// end while?>
    </select>
    <br /><br />
    <input name="show_png" type="submit" value="Show" />
    <input name="delete" type="submit" value="Delete" />
    <input name="download_text" type="submit" value="Download .txt File" />
    <input name="download_image" type="submit" value="Download .png File" />
</form> 

I have functionality for the “Show” and “Delete” buttons of the form to show and delete the content stored in the database. However, I’m having trouble figuring out a way to have the user download a file. Right now, my basic strategy is this:

if (isset($_POST['download_text'])) {
  // Code to create .txt file from content (omitted).
  // File name of content stored in $file_name variable.

  // Download file.
  header('Content-type: text/plain');
  header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="sample.txt"');
  readfile($file_name);
}

This sort of works. What I mean by that is I download a file that contains the contents, but what’s wrong is I also see the html form in plain text following this content. Is there someway to ensure this does not show up?

Answer 1

die() after the readfile.