How to make pdf files downloadable in codeigniter

Question

I have some pdf files in folder "downloadsfolder" in my codeigniter app. The files are named form1, form2, form3 and so on. My routes.php code is below.

$route['default_controller'] = 'pages/view';
$route['(:any)'] = 'pages/view/$1';
$route['404_override'] = '';
$route['translate_uri_dashes'] = FALSE;

The page which has the download links is downloads.php. HTML is given below.

<section>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-12">
                <h2>Download Section</h2><br>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-2">
                <a href="https://www.avnstechno.com/downloadsfolder/form1.pdf" target="_blank" class="btn btn-primary">Retailer Form</a>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-2">
                 <a href="https://www.avnstechno.com/downloadsfolder/form2.pdf" target="_blank" class="btn btn-primary">Distributor Form</a>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-2">
                 <a href="https://www.avnstechno.com/downloadsfolder/form3.pdf" target="_blank" class="btn btn-primary">DSC Form</a>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-2">
                 <a href="https://www.avnstechno.com/downloadsfolder/form4.pdf" target="_blank" class="btn btn-primary">DSC Sample</a>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-2">
                 <a href="https://www.avnstechno.com/downloadsfolder/form5.pdf" target="_blank" class="btn btn-primary">IRCTC Form</a>
            </div>
            <div class="col-md-2">

            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

The problem is that when I click the button it takes me to the error 404 page. I have tried using the force download function to no effect. It just refreshes the page.

Answer 1

Just remove target="_blank" and add html attribute download . See this below, may help.

<a href="https://www.avnstechno.com/downloadsfolder/form3.pdf" download class="btn btn-primary">DSC Form</a>

Same way for all the links.