PHP multiple file download

Question

I've seen this example on the documentation for PHP readfile

<?php
$file = 'monkey.gif';

if (file_exists($file)) {
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($file));
    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    ob_clean();
    flush();
    readfile($file);
    exit;
}
?>

How can you make it so It download multiple files say monkey.gif and girraffe.jpg

Preferably without ZIP files...

Answer 1

You can't. It's not a PHP limitation, it's an HTTP/Web-Browser limitation. HTTP doesn't provide a mechanism for sending multiple files over one request.

You could, however, have some PHP script that generates multiple iframes, which would initiate one download each, and fake it that way.