Proper PHP Headers for CSV Documents (All Browsers) | Zipline Interactive

Proper PHP Headers for CSV Documents (All Browsers) | Zipline Interactive

CSV or comma separated variable files are a common way of storing and transferring data from web applications or databases. These handy files can easily be opened as a spreadsheet in common editing programs like Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, or Open Office Calc.

Most developers have no problem generating a CSV document but many have had problems determining the proper headers to send prior to outputting the content of a PHP variable containing CSV information. Many articles have been written on the topic but very few if any contain headers that work in all browsers in including Internet Explorer 6-9 (IE 6,7,8, and 9). Many of the header combinations available online will work in Firefox and Safari but will fail when trying to force download of a CSV in Internet Explorer.

The following CSV document header code example has been tested and works in all major browsers. When run, it will generate a CSV file using PHP, store it in a variable called CSV, then echo the contents of the CSV to the browser.

(Note: For this to work properly this needs to be the only output created by the page. Your browser will see this output as a document and not standard HTML. Any other information on the page will cause the CSV to break or will result in header errors.)

VIEW SOURCE

PRINT?

01	//NAME THE FILE

02	$table = "test";

03

04	//BUILD CSV CONTENT

05	$csv = '"Column 1","Column 2"' . "\n";

06

07	//BUILD CSV ROWS

08	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "\n";

09	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "\n";

10	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "\n";

11	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "\n";

12	$csv .= '"Column 1 Content","Column 2 Content"' . "\n";

13

14	//OUPUT HEADERS

15	header("Pragma: public");

16	header("Expires: 0");

17	header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");

18	header("Cache-Control: private",false);

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

20	header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$table.csv\";" );

21	header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");

22

23	//OUTPUT CSV CONTENT

24	echo($csv);