Ajax File Download using Jquery, PHP

Question

I want to use the ajax functionality to download whereby the user will click the download link which will (using ajax and $_GET) access a PHP file which will process the sent $_GET variables and access the correct file for downloading.

I have a few PHP scripts to handle the processing of the $_GET variables which work on their own but when accessed using Ajax, they stop working.

The Ajax/PHP code im using is below:

function ajaxDown(){
$('#downloadmsg').html(
    '<img src=\"media/images/ajaxloader.gif\" width=\"128\" height=\"15\">');
$('#downloadmsg').load(
'media/downloads/downManager.php?file=".$filequery['filename']."&ftype=".$downex[1]."');
}

Please look through my code and help me find what Im doing wrong.

Thanx

Answer 1

I think the problem is that you're trying to load a file result INTO #downloadmsg, which isn't going to work because .load() is only going to load results as HTML...NOT binary data or other encoding.

One approach that might work is creating a hidden iframe in HTML, like this:

<iframe id="secretIFrame" src="" style="display:none; visibility:hidden;"></iframe> 

Then, set the attr of the iframe to your querystring:

$("#secretIFrame").attr("src","myphpscript.php?option1=apple&option2=orange"); 

and then using PHP headers to force the download when the source is set (here's an example of an exporter header set from one of my scripts that uses an octet stream):

header("Pragma: public"); header("Expires: 0"); header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");  header("Content-Type: application/force-download"); header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream"); header("Content-Type: application/download"); header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=data.xls "); header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary "); 

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

I know I'm late! But I think I have a solution that's a little cleaner without the use of a hidden iframe and you won't even need an ajax request to do it! Using PHP Headers as noted in the accepted answer in a download.php file

<?php         //download.php          /*           All your verification code will go here         */               header("Pragma: public");         header("Expires: 0");         header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");          header("Content-Type: application/force-download");         header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");         header("Content-Type: application/download");         header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=".$_GET['file']);         header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary "); 

And on the JS end, simply

function download(filename){     window.location="http://whateveryoursiteis.com/download.php?file="+filename; } 

Works like a charm :O