cakephp file download link

cakephp, php

Solution

Media Views is deprecated since version 2.3. You should use Sending files instead.

Check out this minimal example in your controller:

public function download($id) {
    $path = $this->YourModel->aMagicFunctionThatReturnsThePathToYourFile($id);
    $this->response->file($path, array(
        'download' => true,
        'name' => 'the name of the file as it should appear on the client\'s computer',
    ));
    return $this->response;
}

The first parameter of `$this->response->file` is relative to your `APP` directory. So calling `$this->response->file('someFolder' . DS . 'someFile.zip')` will download the file `APP/someFolder/someFile.zip`.

“Sending files” requires at least CakePHP version 2.0. Please also consider taking a look at the Cookbook link above.

If you are running an older version of CakePHP you should use Media Views as you already mentioned in your question. Use this code and refer to Media Views (Cookbook).

Here's the same method for older versions:

public function download($id) {
    $this->viewClass = 'Media';
    $path = $this->YourModel->aMagicFunctionThatReturnsThePathToYourFile($id);
    // in this example $path should hold the filename but a trailing slash
    $params = array(
        'id' => 'someFile.zip',
        'name' => 'the name of the file as it should appear on the client\'s computer',
        'download' => true,
        'extension' => 'zip',
        'path' => $path
    );
    $this->set($params);
}

Problem

I've encountered a problem I'm trying to solve for more than two days now: I've built a Website using cakephp and everything is working just fine but I got stuck when I tried to implement download links to files stored under `APP_DIR/someFolder/someFile.zip`. How do I set download links to files inside `someFolder`? I often stumbled over "Media Views" I tried implementing them but so far I've been unsuccessful. Besides is there no easier way to make files downloadable?

Original source