Force a PDF to download

Hey! That worked perfectly, thanks! You might indicate that one needs mod_headers to use Header set.

Thanks for that... I didn't have a problem as my Apache configs tend to have everything enabled by default ;-)

Do I put this code in the .htaccess file or what?

You can put this code in either the htaccess or the vhost configuration for your server.

You can read more about FilesMatch at the Apache Document page.

Hey, great explanation. Thanks for the well written explanation and for the code sample(s).

Really Interesting document, but how would you use that if apache is a proxyserver?

Hi,

I can't get this to work in .htaccess, I asked around and someone said that the regex was wrong.

Any idea how I can get it to work?

For this technique applied to other web servers and languages such as PHP, check out http://www.stuvel.eu/pdfdownload ;-)

Thanks!

Just what I was looking for ;)

I've been trying to do this for 6 months. Worked perfectly. I love you, sir (platonically)

This is just what i was lokking for! Thanks for the explanation! I will be linking to your post :-)

Thanks, the Internet Explorer specific Header Set and RegEx tip really helped!

Thanks a bunch! Works like a charm, you spared us all a headache :)!!!

I just copy and paste to .htaccess file, but getting internal error. Do you have any idea what would be wrong?

You'd probably need to check your error logs. Maybe an apache extension isn't enabled?

I try to use this trick to open a download window from the browser instead of displaying an image.

<Files *.*>
  ForceType applicaton/octet-stream
  Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</Files>

it works in Mozilla, but not on IE. the mod_headers module is enabled ...

I'm horrible at regular expressions; How could I modify that to force download of all file types? I have a folder full of different file types for clients to download, and this would save them time.

You'd simply put the 2 main lines into a .htaccess file in that folder; no need to files match. Bear in mind, and HTML files in there (such as index.html) may also start to download to...

NOTE: I've not tried this - it's an educated guess...

Thanks for solution,
regular expression \.[Pp][Dd][Ff] also can be used

Thanks for this tip, works perfectly in everything but safari.. looking for a solution to that problem now..

PS. Drupal rocks!

I run the IT direction for several companies and occasionally need to offer files for download without going through the hassle of creating stub pages, or explaining (again!) to users that email isn't the best place to attach a 10MB file.

I stopped by to mention that the code above also works quite well within Apache VirtualHosts directives. Simply include the block above inside the appropriate virtual host, such as "download.mydomain.com" and you can serve your files via HTTP, leaving the rest of your subdomains (such as "www") to serve the content you have time to write.

One quite valuable side-effect is that this also allows administrators to split download functions to another server (read: faster connection) when demand surpasses capacity...without rewriting everything you've done to provide downloadable content.

To wit, thank you; you saved me enough research time that I could stop to...hopefully :)...add value to your writeup. Cheers!

First of all FilesMatch does not work in older versions of Apache.

Secondly, it is far easier to alter the mime types. Just add this to your .htaccess file:

AddType application/octet-stream .pdf