In some situations when you’re creating a web page with links to a file like pdf – xml – jpeg , or other external program file , you may want user’s browser prompt to download the file instead of opening it in the browser window or in an external program . There are a few different methods you can do this , my favorite is PHP-based . Start by creating a new file on your server or on your development computer called download.php and paste the below code into the file .
Complete article : http://tournasdimitrios1.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/how-to-make-files-downloadable-with-php/


// download.php
if (isset($_GET['file'])) {
//$file = $_GET['file'];
$file = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'file', FILTER_SANITIZE_ENCODED);
if (file_exists($file) && is_readable($file) && preg_match('/\.pdf$/',$file)) {
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
header("Content-Type: application/force-download");// some browsers need this
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$file\"");
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file2));
ob_clean();
flush();
readfile($file);
exit;
}else {
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
echo "

Error 404: File Not Found:
$file

";
header('Refresh: 5; url=http://localhost/zy3.php');
print 'You will be redirected in 5 seconds';
exit ;
}
} else {
header('Refresh: 5; url=http://localhost/zy3.php');
print '

You you shouldn\'t be here ......

redirection in 5 seconds

';

exit;

}



//index.html

Click here to download PDF





Read more: http://feeds.dzone.com/~r/dzone/snippets/~3/zym73g_pymI/14425