Button To Download .txt File (PHP & HTML)

Question

Ok so I want to my users to be able to download a .txt file with their username on it.

I've checked everywhere, and so far I can't find what I want or if it's even possible.

To give you an example of what I'm trying to do, here is my code:

<button type="button">Download All Your Keys On A .txt
<?php
$file = 'logs/$session->username.txt';

if(!file_exists($file)) die("I'm sorry, the file doesn't seem to exist.");

$type = filetype($file); // Get a date and timestamp $today = date("F j, Y, g:i a"); $time = time(); // Send file headers header("Content-type: $type"); header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=$filename");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary"); 
header('Pragma: no-cache'); 
header('Expires: 0'); // Send the file contents.
set_time_limit(0); 
readfile($file);
?>
</button>

I'm trying to make it so that when you click the button, it force download's the .txt file configured with:

$file = 'logs/$session->username.txt';

Sorry if this is confusing and messy, but there's no other way for me to present this.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Why don't you have this code in a separate file, say download.php:

<?php
    $file = "logs/{$session->username}.txt";

    if(!file_exists($file)) die("I'm sorry, the file doesn't seem to exist.");

    $type = filetype($file);
    // Get a date and timestamp
    $today = date("F j, Y, g:i a");
    $time = time();
    // Send file headers
    header("Content-type: $type");

    //** If you think header("Content-type: $type"); is giving you some problems,
    //** try header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');

    //** Note filename= --- if using $_GET to get the $file, it needs to be "sanitized".
    //** I used the basename function to handle that... so it looks more like:
    //** header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=' . basename($_GET['mygetvar']));

    header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename={$session->username}.txt");
    header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary"); 
    header('Pragma: no-cache'); 
    header('Expires: 0');
    // Send the file contents.
    set_time_limit(0);
    ob_clean();
    flush();
    readfile($file);

    //** If you are going to try and force download a file by opening a new tab via javascipt
    //** (In this code you would replace the onClick() event handler in the html
    //** button with onclick="window.open('www.someurl.com', '_blank');"
    //** - where 'www.someurl.com' is the url to the php page - I keep the file
    //** creation and download handling in the same file, and $_GET the file name
    // - bad practice? Probably, but I never claimed to be an expert),
    //** be sure to include exit(); in this part of the php... 
    //** otherwise leave exit(); out of the code.
    //** If you don't, it will likely break the code, based on my experience.

    //exit();
?>

Please note that you have to change the quotes to double quotes, as you use a variable inside the 's. So, to expand the variable, change the first line to:

$file = "logs/{$session->username}.txt";

Here I consider, $session->username, as the variable you are trying to refer.

And have this in the HTML:

<button type="button" onclick="location.href='download.php'">Download All Your Keys On A .txt</button>

And when you click on this button, it redirects to the download.php, that initiates a download of the txt file. As simple as that. But this requires you to have two files. And I don't understand the need for a button here. Why not just use a simple link like this?

<a href="download.php">Download All Your Keys On A .txt</a>

And if you need, you can style it using CSS.