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I have a FAPI form that collects some information from the user, then generates a CSV file. The intent is when the user clicks 'export' on the form, the CSV is downloaded straight away.

However, when the submit handler calls the CSV-generating function, the form just redirects, rather than serving the CSV.

Is there any way to make this form serve the CSV to the user directly, without generating a temporary file?

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  • Can you show the code you are using for your form submission handler? Without it, I can only guess what happens.
    – apaderno ♦
    Mar 21, 2011 at 17:09
  • About the possibility, the answer is yes. There are some modules that implement an export feature, including Views and CCK.
    – apaderno ♦
    Mar 21, 2011 at 17:12

2 Answers 2

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I guess the code in this blog post http://sirkitree.net/node/23 will help. Essentially you need to use exit() or die() at the end of your submit handler to prevent redirect.

  $file = $header ."\n";
  foreach ($accounts as $row) {
    $file .= $row ."\n";
  }
  header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
  header('Content-Type: text/csv');
  header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="users.csv"');
  die(print $file);
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  • Thanks, but I think you've missed the point. I know how to print a CSV to the output. When doing this in a FAPI submit handler, the form redirects rather than serving the CSV.
    – Chris Cohen
    Mar 21, 2011 at 16:56
  • 2
    A Drupal module should never call die(); if it would, it should call module_invoke_all('exit'), and then exit(). There are few cases where a module should call exit(), though.
    – apaderno ♦
    Mar 21, 2011 at 17:11
  • @Chris Cohen: There will be no redirect when a module calls exit() during the page callback.
    – Berdir
    Mar 21, 2011 at 17:23
  • Hmm that's interesting. Perhaps there is something else going on in my code, so I'll check that out and report back.
    – Chris Cohen
    Mar 21, 2011 at 17:30
  • @kiamlauno, Thanks for mentioning about module_invoke_all('exit'), will use it from now.
    – Sivaji
    Mar 21, 2011 at 19:59
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The following routine will "push" a file to the user, causing the browser to pop a "save file" dialog:

function _cex_download( $output, $filename ) 
{
  header("Pragma: public");
  header("Expires: 0");
  header("Cache-Control: private");
  header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
  header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename");
  header("Accept-Ranges: bytes");
  echo $output;
  exit;
}

(Where 'cex' is the name of my custom module, and '_cex' designates a private function.)

To use this, generate your CSV file inside a string, and then simply call this, passing in the CSV contents in $output and the filename the browser will be save it as in $filename.

I originally got this logic from how Ubercart handles secure downloads.

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