Download Dialog Box

[evergreensteve]

I want to download pdf or doc files to visitors at my website.  When I put them on my server and link to them the document appears.  I would like to have a dialog box appear.  I have not been able to describe it very well in the past so I have loaded a screen capture of the box I want to appear at http://stevestory.com/dialogbox.html.  This has confused me for months- any help would be greatly appreciated.Thanks

[Computer Hope Admin]

If the file extension is a recognizable format (e.g. .PDF, .DOC, .XLS) by default all browsers will use the associated program to open the file. There are a few things that can be done.

1.

You could suggest to the visitors to right-click the file and choose save as if they don't want to open the PDF.

2.

If you're familiar with PHP you could create a PHP file called download.php and add the below code to the file.

Code: [Select]

<?php   if (isset($_GET['file'])) {
    $file = $_GET['file'];
       if (file_exists($file) && is_readable($file) && preg_match('/\.pdf$/',$file))  {
          header('Content-type: application/pdf');
        header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$file\"");
              readfile($file);
       }
    } else {
    header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
    echo "<h1>Error 404: File Not Found: <br /><em>$file</em></h1>";
 }
 ?>

Once this is added you can change your links to something such as:

http://www.computerhope.com/download.php?file=example.pdf

If the example.pdf file exists it would then prompt the user to download it. Otherwise generate a 404 error.

Hope that helps.

[evergreensteve]

thanks.  i will give it a try.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Because I've got this question a few times and know it's a popular question I've also wrote the below document for future reference.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001113.htm