Saving a file with PHP?

Anon

Hi,

I am pretty new to PHP but am trying to have it save a file at the users request composed of text on a users hard drive so they can review it later and use the information with another program. Is there a way to do this? Any help would be appreciated.

Anon

You can save the file on the server - just use fopen() with a "write" attribute and it will create the file for writing.

If you meant create the file on the client - no, you can't do that. It's invasion of privacy.

Diego

Anon

Well is there a way the client can request to have the file saved on his computer? Such as hitting a button and it brings up a "Save As" dialog box? My webpage has alot of different things to select and some of my users have requested to be able to download their selections in a text format so they can view it in something like notepad or word. If something like this isn't possible with PHP is there another language that could do it?

Anon

Yeah, you can - just send the contents of the file with these headers:

header("Content-type: application/download");
header("Content-length: $fsize");
header("Content-disposition-type: attachment");
header("Content-disposition: filename=$file");

Where $fsize is the file size, and $file is the filename. After that, just send the file.

Diego

Anon

Just making sure I understand...

First I would save the information they have selected on the server using fopen() with a write command. Then I would, say, open another page with those headers forcing the Save As dialog box to open. This would then give the user the option to save the file to their computer.

Am I on the right track?

Thanks again for the help,

Darksbane