Let's say i want to generate a download link and put it into <a>
tag.
my php script:
function download_link(){
$this_id = "d"; //this is the name of file from server
$original_filename = 'xample.pdf'; //This come from database
$ext = pathinfo($original_filename, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
$file = '../uploads/'.$this_id.'.'.$ext;
if (file_exists($file)) {
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/'.$ext);
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.$original_filename);//Rename the file with its original filename
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
ob_clean();
flush();
return readfile($file);//Here where i want to return the generated url
}
return '#'; //Or return nothing if file doesn't exist
echo '<a href="'.function download_link().'"></a>'; //And put it here, the generated url
now, my directory location is ../uploads/
.
i am expecting a result like: <a href="www.myserver.com/whatever the new url is"></a>
so when the user click this tag the file will be downloaded. but instead, when i reload the page it is automatically downloading without clicking the download button which is the <a>
tag.
note:
i am trying to rename the filename when botton download is clicked. i know there is a problem in my logic. maybe this can be done with JQUERY? or AJAX? im searching for solution but did not find the answer.
here's what i did with JQUERY AJAX:
HTML tag<a id="server_name_file_name">download</a>
JQUERY AJAX:
$('a').click(function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
var id = $(this).attr('id');
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: 'download.php',
data: { server_file_name: id,},
success: function(response) {
if(response == 1){
alert("Unable to download, Maybe the file is corrupted. Please try to reload the page.");
}else{
window.location.href = response;
return false;
}
}})
});
download.php
$this_id = $_POST['server_file_name'];
$original_filename = 'xample.pdf'; //This come from database
$ext = pathinfo($original_filename, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
$file = '../uploads/'.$this_id.'.'.$ext;
if (file_exists($file)) {
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/'.$ext);
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.$original_filename);//Rename the file with its original filename
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
ob_clean();
flush();
echo readfile($file);//Here where i want to return the generated url
exit();
} die('1');
but doesnt work.
anyone can help me here?
Thank you!!!!
You're returning the actual contents of the file with readfile. Thats why browser starts to download the file you return.
What you need to do is to generate the string which will point to the file. If your "uploads" dir is accessible by url, then your downloads.php should look like this:
$this_id = $_POST['server_file_name'];
$original_filename = 'xample.pdf'; //This come from database
$ext = pathinfo($original_filename, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
$file = '../uploads/' . $this_id . '.' . $ext;
if (file_exists($file)) {
echo 'www.myserver.com/uploads/' . $this_id . '.' . $ext;
exit();
}
die('1');
If your uploads dir is not accessible from outside, then you need to copy the file into the public directory first.
At a first glance, i can identify a couple of problems.
Your download function does not return the link of the file but rather it outputs the file itself, so it is logical that when refreshing the page, the file is downloading.
Plus, I can see that you are calling your function useing function download_link()
whereas it should be directly download_link()
.
The proper way this should be done is having the download link to a file executing the download_link function (ex: http://yoursite.com/download_file.php?file=filename)
Of course it is advisable to have an id instead of filename in the URL and apply all the security you need etc...
Inside download_file.php file, you can call download_link($filename)
or better download_link($id)
and get the file name from the database or wherever you are storing it and then output the file as you are doing now.