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Answer 1

+3 A:

You Can't really do that I think.
You can force the file download through the following headers but as far is I know you can't mix HTML and file download.

Headers:

Content-type: MIME/type
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="archive.zip"
Content-Length: filesize_in_bytes

The content length is not mandatory but using it will make sure that the download dialog box can show how much more file there is to download.

A thing you could do is reload the page using javascript. Because the page is a file download the original HTML page will stay in place:

<html>
<head>
<title>This is the page containing information</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload = function(){
 document.location = 'somefile.zip';
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
This page will stay visible while the file is being downloaded<br>
</body>
</html>

Pim Jager 2008-12-07 17:46:14

Thanks for the example--I do it that way now, but it requires an extra click from the user. I'd like to emulate, say, SourceForge: when you choose to d/l it displays a new page, then starts the d/l automatically. How's that happen???

Adam Liss 2008-12-07 18:22:00

Maybe simulate click using Javascript? I'll update answer.

Pim Jager 2008-12-07 18:48:51

Thanks, Pim. Don't spend too much time, as I found a workable solution (see below), but I appreciate your help--I learned a lot!

Adam Liss 2008-12-07 19:00:54

Okay, no problem, that's why I'm here. (I Learned a lot too. Half the answer I give were things I didn't knew myself either)

Pim Jager 2008-12-07 19:04:13

Answer 2

+1 A:

I think you can make the browser prompt the user to download a file by using the meta tag to do a refresh, but as Pim Jager said I don't think you can do it with one transfer. You could maybe try doing something like:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5;url=http://example.com/pathtodownload.zip" />

Tom Haigh 2008-12-07 18:53:44

Answer 3

A:

A friend supplied the magic: use an <iframe> tag to create an "invisible" frame that contains only the file to download:

<iframe id="file_download" width="0" height="0" scrolling="no" 
   frameborder="0" src=/cgi-bin/my/scripts/sendfiles?file=$filename.zip>
   You need a browser that supports frames.
</iframe>`

Adam Liss 2008-12-07 18:54:25

You should place the 'You need a....' tag inside <noframes>You need a...</noframes>

Pim Jager 2008-12-07 19:03:19

@Pim: The iframe tag does this for you. See http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_iframe.asp

Adam Liss 2008-12-07 19:11:57

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Automatic file transfer from HTML

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