save file onclick

Question

I want to be able to download the csv file on click and not open in the browser

I put this code

<a href="file.csv">download file</a>

but on click it opens thev file in the browser. In localhost, when I click the link it is being downloaded but when on the server it's opening in the browser

Answer 1

You have to set headers in order to inform web-browser for opening file-save dialog.

download.php

---

  <?php
    header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
    header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=sample.csv");
    readfile('file.csv');
   ?>

showlinks.php

---

<a href="download.php">Download file</a>

Answer 2

HTML5 gives you another way - download attribute. The problem is currently only Chrome supports it. It will take some time till it will become widely used solution.

So for now I would recommend you @AVD's PHP code.