PHP function to trigger file download, useful for echoing content to a file rather than to the DOM

download-headers.php

<?php

function download_send_headers($filename) {
    // disable caching
    $now = gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s");
    header("Expires: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 06:00:00 GMT");
    header("Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate");
    header("Last-Modified: {$now} GMT");

    // force download  
    header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
    header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
    header("Content-Type: application/download");

    // disposition / encoding on response body
    header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename={$filename}");
    header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
}


// =========== EXAMPLE USAGE ===========
$data = ... ; // get some data you wish to save to a file of some sort

$filename = "filename-" . date("Y-m-d") . ".csv"; // define the file name
download_send_headers($filename);

echo $data;
// =========== EXAMPLE USAGE ===========

?>