How to use PHP to generate downloadable content
Jul 22, 2007
php
This post is more than 18 months old. Since technology changes too rapidly, this content may be out of date (but
that's not always the case). Please remember to verify any technical or programming information with the current
release.
I was looking at some code I had written about 3 years ago - how sad! I was creating a PDF of my resume using PHP to grab my qualifications out of a database. Unfortunately, I never researched into the header php command, so I made my job harder. Instead of writing it with a php file, I made a php file, and renamed it as a .pdf file. I modified my .htaccess file to process that one particular file as a php script. This way, the file executed as php but was mime/typed as the pdf.
Instead, I should have done it the smart way - with the proper use of the header command.
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="filename.pdf"');
Of course, check out and read the entire header manual page for more.