Normally, a hyperlink can be used to open a file on the browser. In such a case, the file can download from the browser manually. If you want to download the file dynamically and save it on the local drive automatically, force the browser to download the file instead of displaying it. Force file download<\/b> functionality allows the user to download files in PHP where the requested files are downloaded forcefully without rendering on the browser. In this tutorial, we are going to show how to download a file from a directory or server in PHP. <\/p>\n
Using the header()<\/code> and readfile()<\/code> function, you can easily download a file in PHP. Here we’ll provide the example PHP code to force download file in PHP. Also, this simple PHP script helps to implement a download link that downloads a file from the directory. The following example script can be used to download any type of file like text, image, document, pdf, zip, etc.<\/p>\nDownload File in PHP<\/h2>\n
<?php
<\/span>\/\/ Define file name and path
<\/span>$fileName <\/span>= <\/span>'Brochure.pdf'<\/span>;
<\/span>$filePath <\/span>= <\/span>'files\/'<\/span>.<\/span>$fileName<\/span>;
if(!empty(<\/span>$fileName<\/span>) && <\/span>file_exists<\/span>(<\/span>$filePath<\/span>)){
<\/span>\/\/ Define headers
<\/span>header<\/span>(<\/span>\"Cache-Control: public\"<\/span>);
<\/span>header<\/span>(<\/span>\"Content-Description: File Transfer\"<\/span>);
<\/span>header<\/span>(<\/span>\"Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=<\/span>$fileName<\/span>\"<\/span>);
<\/span>header<\/span>(<\/span>\"Content-Type: application\/zip\"<\/span>);
<\/span>header<\/span>(<\/span>\"Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary\"<\/span>);
<\/span>\/\/ Read the file
<\/span>readfile<\/span>(<\/span>$filePath<\/span>);
exit;
}else{
echo <\/span>'The file does not exist.'<\/span>;
}<\/span><\/pre>\nDownload File Through Anchor Link<\/h2>\n