PHP 5.1 introduced the fputcsv function, which outputs an array of data to a file pointer as comma-separated values. Because fputcsv can only write to file pointers, line 6 opens the output stream as if it were a file. Line 9 then outputs column headers, while line 17 loops over the rows of data and outputs them. A force-download script can give you more control over a file download than you would have providing a direct link. Using a force-download script, you can: validate that a person is logged in, increment a counter in a text file, connect to your database and log IP information, and so on. Learn how to force a download using PHP, a BluDice article.
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