Question

I have store a sample document inside my local server named template.doc. Then I store the file directory inside my sqlite table. I manage to call out the path of the file directory but how can I allow the user to download it?

Codes

    <form id="List" name="List" method="post" action="">
          <select name="List" id="List">
                       <?php 
            if ($Choice !="No")
            {
                            $path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/WEB/";
                $fullPath = $path.$_GET['$Choice'];
                                echo "<form id=\"form7\" name=\"form7\" method=\"post\" action=\"\">";
                echo "<input type=\"submit\" name=\"Download\" id=\"Download\" value=".$fullPath."/>";

                if (file_exists($fullPath)) 
                {
                    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
                    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
                    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($fullPath));
                    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
                    header('Expires: 0');
                    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
                    header('Pragma: public');
                    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($fullPath));
                    ob_clean();
                    flush();
                    readfile($fullPath);
                    echo "<label>".$fullPath."</label>";
                    echo "<input type=\"submit\" name=\"Download\" id=\"Download\" value=".$fullPath."/>";
                    exit;
                                            echo '</form>';
                }
            }
            ?>

How to create a button below the list form and download the microsoft word? It now flushes out the Microsoft word text on the website now, not on the button.
Kindly advise if it’s possible to do it. Just for local testing. Thanks alot!

Answer 1

You can use readfile and set the appropriate headers to force a download.

Example from readfile domestication page:

<?php
$file = 'monkey.gif';

if (file_exists($file)) {
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($file));
    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    ob_clean();
    flush();
    readfile($file);
    exit;
}
?>

Your form should look something like this

<form name="download" action="download.php" method="post">
    <input type="hidden" name="fileID" value="some file identifier" />
    <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Download File" />
</form>

Then, in download.php

if(isset($_POST["submit"])) {
    $file = $_POST['fileID'];
    // download file
}