force a download (netscape/IE)rather than display

lkj

I'd appreciate any help on this topic - i'd like the browser to download the info to a file (save) rather than display on screen. Is there a way to compress the content on server that when sent to browser the browser can automatically detect and uncompress it -for the reduction in size of traffic?

Thank you.

lkj

stevesweetland

well, its certainly possible to force a 'save as' dialog, but what the user chooses to do with this it - is their own choice.... and i doubt itll save any bandwidth...

lkj

so how do you force? what the code looks like for save as dialog

thx. lkj

cbj4074

The code would look something like this:

header("Content-type: application/force-download");
		header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary");
		header("Content-length: " . filesize($file)); //where $file is the name of the file, which you would determine elsewhere
		header("Content-disposition: inline; filename=" . basename($file) . "");

Weedpacket

The correct Content-Type is application/octet-stream - anything else and you're just handwaving.

lkj

may be i didn't make it clear.

what i want to do is to rather than displaying the result of a DB query i'd like to force the browser (NetScape/IE)for the content (text) to be downloaded by presenting the file save/as dialog.

e.g.

result from query:

$res = 'this is a test';
echo ( $res);

so when the server returns this query result to the browser instead of displaying it on the screen i want the browser to present to user the file save/as dialog.

i think it's as easy as that?

Thx.
lkj