Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Programming Discussion : Automatically start download dialogue

[AC1]

Hi

I have seen a few sites which send me an email containing a web page link to receive a free download of an ebook, for example.

I then click on the web page in the email and the ftp dialogue automatically starts and all I have to do is select the location on my PC where I want to save the file.

Does anyone know how this is done?

Cheers
Andy

[Steve-PWH]

Certain mime types will do that automaticly

like
.gz
.zip
.exe

ETC.

[Duey]

its done through your operating system its just a default setting nothing to do with PHP

[Rich2k]

You do this using content-disposition in the header.

e.g. (note this example is for inline download... i.e. the current PHP script echos the file content). You can do a similar thing for a remote file as well

PHP Code:

header("Content-Type: application/pdf");
header("Content-Length: " . $length);
header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=" . $filename);
echo $document; 


[Ahmad]

FTP doesn't have content disposition

[AC1]

Hi

Does anyone know where I can find an example of how this is done?

Cheers
Andy

[:: paVel ::]

Originally posted by AC1
Hi

Does anyone know where I can find an example of how this is done?

Cheers
Andy

try... http://www.hotscripts.com

[Rich2k]

You initiate the download to an FTP source from an http connection. That's how all these downloads sites do it.

The example I gave is for an inline download. What you need is to use content-disposition for a remote file

[DavidU]

Originally posted by Rich2k
You initiate the download to an FTP source from an http connection. That's how all these downloads sites do it.

The example I gave is for an inline download. What you need is to use content-disposition for a remote file

Rich,

How to do force an FTP transport when you've already initiated an HTTP connection?

header() won't work.

-davidu

[dreamrae.com]

i would suggest using Rich2k's code spinnet or just being lazy and doing this: header("Location: filepath_here");

[DavidU]

Originally posted by dreamrae.com
i would suggest using Rich2k's code spinnet or just being lazy and doing this: header("Location: filepath_here");

I want to know how to initiate an FTP connection with PHP from an established HTTP connection.

Rich2k can do it, I just want to know how.

-davidu

[mind21_98]

Couldn't you force the content type to be "application/octlet-stream"? Every browser I've seen will show the download dialog when that is received.

[DavidU]

Originally posted by mind21_98
Couldn't you force the content type to be "application/octlet-stream"? Every browser I've seen will show the download dialog when that is received.

Yep. That's a great technique. In fact, the PDF example rick2k gave would most likely result in Acrobat being loaded into the window of the browser depending on the browser settings and if acrobat is installed.

application/octet-stream

is one of the few ways I know to force a file:ave dialog.

-davidu

[Ahmad]

As far as I know, there are no MIME types in the FTP specifications. It totally depends on how your operating system is set up. Using HTTP, though, to point to an FTP file and define its MIME types is something new to me.

[The Prohacker]

For downloading a file off of an FTP:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ftp-get.php


You'll need PHP compiled with ftp support....