Want to make PDF file downloadable in HTML link in PHP? Instead of linking to the .PDF file, instead do something like:
1 | <a href="pdf_server.php?file=pdffilename">Download my eBook</a> |
Which outputs a custom header, opens the PDF (binary safe) and prints the data to the user’s browser, then they can choose to save the PDF despite their browser settings. The pdf_server.php should look like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream"); $file = $_GET["file"] .".pdf"; header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=" . urlencode($file)); header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream"); header("Content-Type: application/download"); header("Content-Description: File Transfer"); header("Content-Length: " . filesize($file)); flush(); // this doesn't really matter. $fp = fopen($file, "r"); while (!feof($fp)) { echo fread($fp, 65536); flush(); // this is essential for large downloads } fclose($fp); |
PS: and obviously run some sanity checks on the “file” variable to prevent people from stealing your files such as don’t accept file extensions, deny slashes, add .pdf to the value.
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