How can PHP be used to initiate a download for a user via a direct URL link?

To initiate a download for a user via a direct URL link using PHP, you can create a script that sets the appropriate headers to force the browser to download the file instead of displaying it. You need to set the Content-Disposition header to attachment and provide the file path in the href attribute of the download link. 

<?php
$file = 'path/to/your/file.pdf';
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($file) . '"');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
readfile($file);
exit;
?>

Keywords

PHP download direct URL link header Content-Disposition

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