Creating a file with DB output

[rmiller1985]

I'm familiar with how to access the backend database and retrieving and displaying data with a SELECT statement. What I'd like to do is create a file that contains the data retrieved instead of displaying it:

1. The user's on page abc.php.
2. Click on a report button that's tied to report.php.
3. report.php works in the background accessing the database, issuing a SELECT statement, and then prompts the user for a local filename in which to store the resulting output (it will be formatted with delimiters that will make it available for import into Excel, Access, etc.).
4. The output is stored in the filename specified by the user.
5. report.php redirects back to abc.php.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

I'm guessing this is just a matter of using I/O functions like fopen() and fwrite(); but do these functions work on files on the user's local filesystem, or do they look for files on the server? And is there a handy-dandy class/function that will present the user with the standard "Open file" dialog box?

Thanks,
Rich

[devinemke]

the basic idea:

1. query the db
2. loop thru the results and append each record to a string (using the concatenation operator) using whatever formatting convention you want (tabs, comma, whatever...)
3. push the output string to the browser using [man]header[/man]
4. redirect to whatever URL you want, again using [man]header[/man].

there is actually no reason to use fopen/fwrite unless you want to save a copy of the file on the server.

[rmiller1985]

Thanks!

I'm not all that familiar with the different content-types, but after Googling around a bit I found "text/plain," which is what I need.

Is there any limit to a) how long a string can be, or b) how long a string placed in a header can be?

Thanks again,
Rich

[rmiller1985]

I guess I found the answer to a) above. According to the PHP docs:

It is no problem for a string to become very large. There is no practical bound to the size of strings imposed by PHP, so there is no reason at all to worry about long strings.

But should I worry about HTTP limits?