Force pdf download

[Zeka]

Hi.

I have file field on a page wich contain pdf files.

As i understand in almost all modern browsers pdf files will be opened in it, but i need to force files download. 

I can use "download" attribute, but it does not work in IE.

Is there some build-in methods for that in PW.

Thanks!

[horst]

No, there is nothing built-in for this. You need to send apropriate HTTP-headers. About which one, you may read here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17968837/file-opens-instead-of-downloading-in-internet-explorer-in-a-href-link.

[adrian]

You might find wireSendFile with the forceDownload option useful:

https://github.com/ryancramerdesign/ProcessWire/blob/7e8c7c6836282b6b64de81263f5aaa8112fd51ae/wire/core/Functions.php#L521

[Zeka]

Hi, Horst and thank you for answer.

For now i implement solution based on url segments. 

<?php
if($input->urlSegment1 == 'download') {
    if($input->urlSegment2) {
        $names = array();
        $urls = array();
        foreach ($page->diagnostic_referral_repeater as $referral) {
            foreach ($referral->diagnostic_referral_files as $file) {
                array_push($names, $file->name);
                array_push($urls, $file->filename);
            }
        }
        $key = array_search($input->urlSegment2, $names);
        if($key !== false) {
            wireSendFile($urls[$key]);
        } else {
            throw new Wire404Exception();
        }
    }
} else if($input->urlSegment1) {
  // unknown URL segment, send a 404
  throw new Wire404Exception();
}
?>

                            <?php foreach ($page->diagnostic_referral_repeater as $referral) { ?>
                                <div class="diagnostic-referral">
                                    <div class="diagnostic-referral__box">
                                        <div class="diagnostic-referral__title">
                                            <?php echo $referral->diagnostic_referral_category->title; ?>
                                        </div>
                                        <?php echo $referral->render('diagnostic_referral_files', 'diagnostic-referral'); ?>
                                        <div class="diagnostic-referral__files">
                                            <?php foreach ($referral->diagnostic_referral_files as $file) { ?>
                                                <div class="diagnostic-referral-file">
                                                    <a href="<?php echo $page->path.'download/'.$file->name; ?>" class="diagnostic-referral-file__link">
                                                        <div class="diagnostic-referral-file__icon">
                                                            <span class="icon-download"></span>
                                                        </div>
                                                        <div class="diagnostic-referral-file__title">
                                                            <?php echo $file->description; ?>
                                                        </div>
                                                    </a>
                                                </div>
                                            <?php } ?>
                                        </div>
                                    </div>
                                </div>
                            <?php } ?>

Do you have any recommendation to improve it? 

Thanks. 

[dotnetic]

I used a much simpler and faster method utilizing the pagefile class.

My link looks like this:

// Sorry for smarty language. but thats what I used
{if $page->files|@count > 0}
            {foreach $page->files as $file}
                <p>
                    {if $file->description}

                        {$file->description}
                    {else}
                        {$file->name}
                    {/if}
                    <br>
                    <a href="download/{$file->name}" class="link-icon">Download</a>
                    | {$file->filesizeStr}
                </p>
                {*{/if}*}
            {/foreach}
        {/if}

and then in my _init.php I used the following code

if ($input->urlSegment1 == 'download') {
        $download_options = array(
            // boolean: halt program execution after file send
            'exit' => true,
            // boolean|null: whether file should force download (null=let content-type header decide)
            'forceDownload' => true,
            // string: filename you want the download to show on the user's computer, or blank to use existing.
            'downloadFilename' => '',
        );
        session_write_close();
        if ($input->urlSegment2) {
            $pagefile = $page->files[$input->urlSegment2];
            if($pagefile){
                wireSendFile($pagefile->filename, $download_options);
            }
        }
    }

EDIT: The downside when implementing this in the _init.php is, that you can´t send a Wire404Exception, because this file gets included (prepended) and PHP doesn´t like exeptions in included files. If you paste this code into one of your templates you could add trowing a Wire404Exception.

Edited February 10, 2017 by jmartsch