How to make a 'Download' button?

[Hexidecimal]

I was curious how others make a download button?

I've got a list of files that is auto generated, and it is easy to make it into a link for them to click on. However, I thought it would be more stylish to include a "download" button on the right that looks like any other HTML Forms button.

Anyone have a snippet of code that shows this kind of functionality?

[drew010]

if what i think you want is for someone to click the download button and have them download a specific file. the code is as easy as this:

<form method=POST action="filetodownload.zip">
<input type=submit value="Download Now">
</form>

[Hexidecimal]

Hi drew.

I tried this and it works, however if it is a .doc file or similar, it actually opens the file.

This is the behaviour I am trying to avoid. Do you know of a way to do this? For example, have it bring up the open/save dialog box?

[drew010]

Yes, to do that you must use the header() function to specify how to treat the file.

-------------- download.php --------------------------

<?php

$fp = fopen("file.doc","r");
while(!feof($fp)) {
    $contents .= fread($fp,255);
}

$length = strlen($contents);

header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-disposition: attachment; file.doc"); //tells what to save as
header("Content-length: $length");
echo $contents;
exit;
?>

im sure you can modify that to use a query string to decide what file to download, but that will promt the user to open or save.

[Hexidecimal]

Here is the code I am using, it is almost exactly like yours. This is the php file that executes when the download button is clicked. The problem is it sits and processes the file for a while, so the download doesn't start immediately.

Also, it always thinks the filename is download.php, which is actually the name of the script that is being called, even though I am making sure that the filename really is in the variable I specified. Any ideas?

<?
// secureindex.php - secure page
// session check
if ( isset($_COOKIE['PHPSESSID']) ){ 
    session_start(); 
} else { 
	header("Location: /error.php?e=2");
	exit();
}//end if
$thefile = $_SESSION['FILENAME'];
$saveas = $_SESSION['SAVEAS'];
//print $saveas;

$fp = fopen($thefile,"r"); 
while(!feof($fp)) { 
    $contents .= fread($fp,255); 
} 

$length = strlen($contents); 

header("Content-type: application/octet-stream"); 
header("Content-disposition: attachment; '$saveas'"); //tells what to save as 
header("Content-length: $length"); 
echo $contents; 
exit; 
?> 

[Hexidecimal]

OK I can get it to download a file perfectly now.

But there is one catch:

Basically I have an auto generated table, and to the right of each file, there's a download button. So I was trying to code it so that each button would have a different filename. In the end, it appears the filename is somehow not being used by the second script when it's run.

Here's the code:

CALLING SCRIPT snippet:

		if($x == 4)
		{
			$thedate = date('l dS of F Y h:i:s A', $row[4]);
			print $thedate;
			print "<P>";
			print $row[4];
			print "<P>";
		}
		if($x == ($cols))
			{
			$filename = "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/TU/Documents/".mysql_result($qr, $i, 1);
			$fname = "FILENAME".$i;
			$_SESSION['$fname'] = $filename;
		//	print $_SESSION['$fname'];
		//	print "<P>";
			$fsave = "SAVEAS".$i;
			$_SESSION['$fsave'] = mysql_result($qr, $i, 1);
		//	print $_SESSION['$fsave'];
		//	print "<P>";
		//	print $i;
		//	print "<P>";
			$toreturn .="\t<td><CENTER><form method=POST action='download.php?i=$i'><input type=submit 						                     	value='Download' name='download'></form><form method=POST action='delete.php'><input 						type=submit value='Delete Me' name='delete'></form></CENTER></td>\n";
			}

lastly, the called script:

<?
// secureindex.php - secure page
// session check
if ( isset($_COOKIE['PHPSESSID']) ){ 
    session_start(); 
} else { 
	header("Location: /error.php?e=2");
	exit();
}//end if
import_request_variables("gP", "i_");
$fname = "FILENAME".$i_i;
$thefile = $_SESSION['$fname'];
print $thefile;
print "<P>";
$savename = "SAVEAS".$i_i;
$saveas = $_SESSION['$savename'];
print $fname;
print "<P>";
print $savename;

if(strpos($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'MSIE')){ 
// IE cannot download from sessions without a cache 
header('Cache-Control: public'); 
} 

$fp = fopen($thefile, 'rb');

header("Content-type: application/octet-stream"); 
header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename=$saveas"); //tells what to save as 
header("Content-Length: ".filesize($thefile));

fpassthru($fp);


exit; 
?>