Are there any best practices for handling multiple file downloads in PHP?

When handling multiple file downloads in PHP, it is important to set the appropriate headers to indicate that multiple files will be downloaded and to use a loop to iterate through each file and output its content. Additionally, it is recommended to zip the files before downloading to improve efficiency and reduce the number of HTTP requests. 

<?php
// List of files to be downloaded
$files = array('file1.txt', 'file2.txt', 'file3.txt');

// Create a zip file
$zip = new ZipArchive();
$zipName = 'download.zip';
$zip->open($zipName, ZipArchive::CREATE);

// Add each file to the zip
foreach ($files as $file) {
    $zip->addFile($file);
}

$zip->close();

// Set headers for multiple file download
header('Content-Type: application/zip');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="download.zip"');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($zipName));

// Output the zip file
readfile($zipName);

// Delete the zip file after download
unlink($zipName);
?>

Keywords

file downloads PHP handling multiple best practices

Related Questions