How to Setup a File Download in PHP
PHP is a popular scripting language used in conjunction with HTML to create dynamic web pages, or web pages that might be different each time you load them based on some program logic. HTML by itself can only produce static pages, or the same page each time. To set up a file download in PHP, you simply need to provide a link to the file. When the user clicks the link, the file will download.
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Instructions
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Launch an editor and create a new php file. For example, type:
nano download.php
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Insert the desired HTML code and PHP script. Add a link in the code to the file you want to set up for download. For example, type:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>File Download</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$filename = "filetodownload.dat";
?>
<a href="<?php echo $filename ?>">Click here to download the file</a>
</body>
</html>
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Exit the editor and save the file. Navigate to the file in a browser to test the functionality of the program. Enter the name of the PHP file in the browser address bar. For example, type:
http://example.com/download.php
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References
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