How can PHP be used to force browsers to download linked files of any type?

To force browsers to download linked files of any type, you can use PHP to send the appropriate headers in the response. By setting the Content-Disposition header to "attachment", you instruct the browser to prompt the user to download the file instead of displaying it in the browser. 

<?php
$file = 'path_to_your_file.pdf'; // Specify the path to the file you want to force download

if (file_exists($file)) {
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($file) . '"');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    readfile($file);
    exit;
} else {
    echo 'File not found';
}
?>

Keywords

PHP force download linked files content-disposition header

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