What alternative approaches can be considered for handling file downloads in PHP to ensure data integrity and user experience?

When handling file downloads in PHP, it is important to ensure data integrity and provide a good user experience. One approach is to use HTTP headers to set the content type and disposition of the file being downloaded. This helps in specifying the file type and prompting the user to download the file instead of displaying it in the browser. 

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

Keywords

file downloads PHP data integrity user experience alternative approaches

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