Question

I want to know how to implement logic for my download button in PHP. I have a file in web server and have a page with download button. I want to start download a file when user press download button. How to implenent? Thanks

Answer 1

Here is how you start a download without letting the user see the real path of the file. Make your link point to download.php?file=filename, and be sure the file exists in the download folder. Then use this code to check if the file exists and let them download it. Optionally, you can put a login check or some other check in it.

<?php
//download.php
$dir = '/path/to/file/'; 
if (isset($_GET['file']) && !is_dir($_GET['file']) && file_exists($dir . $_GET['file'] . '.zip')) 
{ 
    $file = $dir . $_GET['file'] . '.zip'; 
    header('Content-type: application/force-download'); 
    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary'); 
    header('Content-length: ' . filesize($file)); 
    header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename=' . basename($file)); 
    readfile($file); 
} 
else 
{ 
    echo 'No file selected'; 
} 
?>

In addition, you can also block access to the folder with the files in it with a .htaccess file. If you want to, put the following code in a .htaccess file in the files dir.

order allow, deny
deny from all