How can PHP scripts be structured to avoid issues with file downloads?

When serving files for download in PHP, it is important to handle the file download process correctly to avoid issues such as incomplete downloads or corrupted files. One way to structure PHP scripts to avoid these issues is to use appropriate headers to indicate that the content being served is a file attachment. This ensures that the file is downloaded by the browser instead of being displayed in the browser window. 

<?php
$file = 'example.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 scripts file downloads headers content-disposition ob_clean

Related Questions