forcing a file to download [duplicate]

Answer 1

Slightly different style and ready to go :)

$file = 'folder/' . $name;

if (! file) {
    die('file not found'); //Or do something 
} else {
    // Set headers
    header("Cache-Control: public");
    header("Content-Description: File Transfer");
    header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file");
    header("Content-Type: application/zip");
    header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
    // Read the file from disk
    readfile($file); 
}

Answer 2

You need to send these two header fields for the particular resources:

Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Disposition: attachment

The Content-Disposition can additionally have a filename parameter.

You can do this either by using a PHP script that sends the files:

header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment');
readfile($fileToSend);
exit;

And the filenames are passed to that script via URL. Or you use some web server features such as mod_rewrite to force the type:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^download/ - [L,T=application/octet-stream]