Generating text file - prompt download instead of save?

[bunner_bob]

I'm trying to generate a text file that is downloaded (or, ideally, prompted for download) when the user clicks a link.

This chunk of code is supposed to effect this, but instead displays the file contents on the screen (above the body of the page, which is rendered/echoed later in the script).

$file_name = $_REQUEST['employee_id'] . '_' . $data_array[0]['last_name'] . '_' . gmdate('Ymd', gmmktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $start_day, $year)) . '.txt';
	$export_file = fopen("text_dumps/$file_name", 'w');
	fwrite($export_file, $page->ParmsToTemplate($export, $html->pay_period_admin_export_tmplt));
	fclose($export_file);

header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Length: " . filesize("text_dumps/$file_name"));
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file_name");

echo file_get_contents("text_dumps/$file_name");

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Why the text file is just echoing at the top of the page?

I suppose a related question would be, how do I tell it to STOP echoing to the downloaded file, and display any subsequent echoes to the screen? But first things first - getting the file to download.

• Bob

[justsomeone]

has this page echoed anything before the header calls? If so, they will just be ignored.

Also, have you tried it in different browsers, on different operating systems? This might help narrow it down?

You could use the live HTTP headers extension to firefox to see exactly what headers arebeing sent.