Download file using curl on button click

Question

I need help to make this, It download the file on my server when refresh but I want that it should start download on button click. Here is my code

//File to save the contents to
$fp = fopen ('files2.tar', 'w+');

$url = "http://localhost/files.tar";

//Here is the file we are downloading, replace spaces with %20
$ch = curl_init(str_replace(" ","%20",$url));

//give curl the file pointer so that it can write to it

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);

$data = curl_exec($ch);//get curl response

//done
curl_close($ch);

How to I make a button that download file on click. I know I need to make a function that execute on click but I don't know how to start. If need it can use javascript or jquery Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can do this using several methods.

One and most easy I think is to make a form and submit that form on click of a button. Check for data on server to know user want to download the file.

So your HTML code should look like this:

<form method="POST">
   <input type="submit" value="DOWNLOAD FILE" name="downloadfile"/>
</form>

Now at the top of the your PHP script you should check if user wants to download file or not. Like this:

<?php

    if(isset($_POST["downloadfile"])) {
         //File to save the contents to
        $fp = fopen ('files2.tar', 'w+');
        $url = "http://localhost/files.tar";
        //Here is the file we are downloading, replace spaces with %20
        $ch = curl_init(str_replace(" ","%20",$url));
        //give curl the file pointer so that it can write to it
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
        $data = curl_exec($ch);//get curl response
        //done
        curl_close($ch);
    }


    // Your other page Code should be here.

?>

This script will make sure that on page load file won't get downloaded, it will get downloaded only after clicking Submit button.