Dynamic content for download (Content-Disposition the laravel way...)

Here you're not streaming the file. The whole file is generated and stored in memory as you have a $fileContent variable.

The only way to stream a csv is to use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\StreamedResponse with a callback generating the content.

@pmall Good catch. I changed the title. Basically, wanted to confirm if there was any way to directly use laravel's Response (via helper response()) to achieve it. I understand, Laravel uses HttpFoundation.

it didn't work

Be more specific please :)

@pmall will try to explain...

Isn't Laravel's Response extended from Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response? So, why can't I do this

$disposition = response()->headers->makeDisposition(
    ResponseHeaderBag::DISPOSITION_ATTACHMENT,
    'foo.pdf'
);

return response()->headers->set('Content-Disposition', $disposition);

instead of

$disposition = $response->headers->makeDisposition(
    ResponseHeaderBag::DISPOSITION_ATTACHMENT,
    'foo.pdf'
);

return $response->headers->set('Content-Disposition', $disposition);

But what is the bug when you do this?

@pmall I get this

Undefined property: Illuminate\Routing\ResponseFactory::$headers

and here is what controller method has

        $disposition = response()->headers->makeDisposition(
            ResponseHeaderBag::DISPOSITION_ATTACHMENT,
            'Gateways_CSV_' . date('YmdHis')
        );

        

        return response('File Contents')->header('Content-Disposition', $disposition);

Object retuned by response() does not expose a headers property.

How to manage headers is explained here https://laravel.com/docs/5.3/responses#creating-responses

Ok. I get this working finally.

        $response = Response::make('File contents', 200);
        $response->header('Content-Type', 'application/json');
        $response->header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment; filename="myfile.txt"');
        return $response;

and

        $response = response('File contents', 200);
        $response->header('Content-Type', 'application/json');
        $response->header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment; filename="myfile.txt"');
        return $response;

both work for me. I'm sure I can reduce it to 1 line or even create a quick shortcut method somewhere. I like using helpers like response() as I feel they work for more versions to come :)

@pmall thanks for guiding me through...

I'm sure I can reduce it to 1 line or even create a quick shortcut method somewhere.

Third parameter of the response object/helper is an associative array o headers :

$response = response('File contents', 200, [
    'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
    'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="myfile.txt"',
]);

@pmall Now, that's the perfect answer :) Because, that's what I meant by "the Laravel way" ;)

Btw, where can I find these details API docs doesn't have this. Does it?

Also, what if the content generation failed and want to notify the user about it? Send 404 instead of 200?

        return response()->download(
                storage_path($fileAttachment->path),
                $fileAttachment->name,
                [],
                'inline'
            );

If anyone stumbles upon this and is looking for another option, I settled on the above.

It allows you to do an inline view of the file, but still set the file name explicitly.

If you want it to go as a download, change "inline" to "attachment".

@dylanh Absolute legend, this is exactly 100% what I needed to solve my issue today. A+

I ended up with to help decrypt some data before downloading it to user:

return response()->streamDownload(
                function () use ($passenger) {
                    $path = sprintf('passengers/%d/%s',
                        $passenger->id,
                        $passenger->profile->image);

                    $content = Storage::disk('s3')->get($path);

                    echo decrypt($content);
                },
                'passport.jpg',
                [
                    'X-Vapor-Base64-Encode' => 'True',
                ],
                'attachment'
            );