Downloading file to user

[OhLordy]

What I want is a link on my page which, when clicked will bring up the standard download a file box and then the user can download the (CSV) file to their local machin.
Thanks
Rob

[OhLordy]

Right, I have slightly changed my tack on this now and worked out a little more.
Basically I generate the contents of what will be a CSV file and put it in variable $file_data.
I send a header

<?
header('Content-type: file');
?>

Then I display the contents of the variable

<?
print($file_data);
?>

Now I'm expecting this to bring up a window asking the user if they would like to download the file. But it doesn't, it brings up a window with an error saying "ie cannot upload file ec_do.php?start=123124&end=231422" which is the name of the php file.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Rob

[ir4z0r]

here another sample that works:

<?PHP
	$saveasname = "myfile.csv";
	$string = "hello; my; file;";

header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
Header("Accept-Ranges: bytes");

global $HTTP_USER_AGENT;
if (preg_match('/MSIE 5.5/', $HTTP_USER_AGENT) || preg_match('/MSIE 6.0/', $HTTP_USER_AGENT))
{
	header('Content-Disposition: Filename="'.$saveasname.'"');
}
else
{
	header('Content-Disposition: attachment; Filename="'.$saveasname.'"');
}

echo $string;


?>

[OhLordy]

Thanks for the reply ir4z0r, I've implemented you bits but I'm still getting the error. Here is my code for the page

<?
include('head1.php');

header('Content-type: application/octet-stream');
global $HTTP_USER_AGENT;
if(preg_match('/MSIE 5.5/', $HTTP_USER_AGENT) || preg_match('/MSIE 6.0/', $HTTP_USER_AGENT)) {
    header('Content-Disposition: Filename="ce.csv"');
} else {
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; Filename="ce.csv"');
}


$start=$_GET['start'];
$end=$_GET['end'];
$sql="  SELECT  ohead.order_id AS order_id,
                ohead.auth_code AS auth_code,
                users.name AS user_name,
                product_type.short_name AS type_name,
                product_type.product_type AS product_type,
                oline.product_code AS product_code
        FROM    ohead, oline, users, new_products, product_type
        WHERE   ohead.order_id=oline.order_id
        &&      ohead.user_id=users.user_nr
        &&      oline.product_code = new_products.product_code
        &&      new_products.product_type=product_type.product_type
        &&      ohead.order_date>'".$start."'
        &&      ohead.order_date<'".$end."'
        &&      ohead.payment_type='EC'
        &&      (ohead.authorised='Y' || ohead.complete='Y')";
//echo($sql."<br>");
$result=db_read($sql);
$file_data="";
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    $sql="SELECT title FROM ";
    switch ($row['product_type']) {
        case "1":
            $sql.="cd_products";
            break;
        case "2":
            $sql.="dvd_products";
            break;
        case "3":
            $sql.="game_products";
            break;
        case "4":
            $sql.="elec_products";
            break;
        case "9":
            $sql.="alt_products";
            break;
    } //end switch
    $sql.=" WHERE product_code='".$row['product_code']."'";
    $result_t=db_read($sql);
    $row_t=mysql_fetch_array($result_t);
    $file_data.=$row['order_id'].",".$row['auth_code'].",".$row['user_name'].",".$row['type_name'].",".$row_t['title']."\n";
} //while
print($file_data);
?>

Any more ideas
Thanks
Rob

[ir4z0r]

ummm, can't find any error, does head1.php output anything?

the error message suggests that the error might be in the form/link
which is used to call do_ec.php??

does this happen with another browser, too?

[OhLordy]

There are two things I think it may be.
A) This script is being called from a [url]https://[/url] site
😎 The info is passed through get so the url of the page reads page.pgp?variable=3454&var=74576

Would either of those cause a problem?

head1.php has no errors and displays nothing, the form data is all sound as well.

The error is not a PHP error the download box apears but then another windows error box appears on top reading
"Internet Explorer cannot download ....tart=10521792000&end1052352000 from service.skiptest.com.
Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later"

Thanks
Rob

[OhLordy]

:o :o :o
Found out why I was getting that error the page being called didn't have the second equals sign in.

However it is still not working as expected. Now it is just printing the data to the browser as if I had not added any headers.
Is there any way of reading the headers that have been sent with a page from the browser?
Any other ideas?
Thanks
Rob

[ir4z0r]

the only thing that I found is
header("Cache-control: private");
put this before the content-header

no more ideas 🙁

[OhLordy]

Still not working. I've also added

<?
header('Content-Length:'.strlen($file_data));
?>

And still no luck
Does anyone have any more ideas?
People must have encountered this problem before?
Thanks
Rob

[OhLordy]

TA DA!!
I found the problem. There was a sneaky little

<?
header('Pragma: no-cache');
?>

hiding away in that head1.php file.

How can I get the same effect as Pragma: no-cache without using this header

Cheers
Rob

[tsinka]

Hi,

we had the same problems and the solution to this was:

header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$filename."\"");

It worked at least with Netscape and IE.

You might want to use two disposition headers like mentioned by OhLordy

That also solved the

The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found problem