How do I get csv file to download on IE? Works on firefox

Question

I'm struggling with an odd error. I have a simple web app that grabs stuff from a DB then outputs it as a downloadable csv file. It works on firefox and chrome, but IE fails to recognize it as a csv file (thinking it is a html fle) and when I click save I get the error, "Unable to download {name of file} from {name of site}. Unable to open this internet site. ..."

Code:

session_start();  //some logic goes here...    //generate csv header   header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");   header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=exportevent.csv");   header("Pragma: no-cache");   header("Expires: 0");    echo "Event: " . $event_title . "\n";    //print the column names   echo "Last Name, First Name, Company \n";    while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))   {       echo $row['atlname'] . ',' . $row['atfname'] . ',' . $row['atcompany'] . "\n";       } 

I've played around with the content-type a whole bunch, but that had no effect.

Update: I've tried text/csv, application/vnd.ms-excel (and variations of this), text/plain, and some others that I now forget with no luck.

This is IE8 btw.

Update 2: The connection is over SSL.

Answer 1

Don't we love IE? :)

Try using those headers:

  header("Pragma: public");   header("Expires: 0");   header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");   header("Cache-Control: private",false);   header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");   header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"exportevent.csv\";" );   header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");  

I think that the octet-stream content type forces IE to download the file.