How to use the CSV MIME-type?

Question

In a web application I am working on, the user can click on a link to a CSV file. There is no header set for the mime-type, so the browser just renders it as text. I would like for this file to be sent as a .csv file, so the user can directly open it with calc, excel, gnumeric, etc.

header('Content-Type: text/csv');
echo "cell 1, cell 2";

This code works as expected on my computer (Isn't that how it always is?) but does not work on another computer.

My browser is a nightly build of FF 3.0.1 (on linux). The browsers it did not work in were IE 7 and FF 3.0 (on windows)

Are there any quirks I am unaware of?

score 224 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 08 '11 at 10:36

224

You could try to force the browser to open a "Save As..." dialog by doing something like:

header('Content-type: text/csv');
header('Content-disposition: attachment;filename=MyVerySpecial.csv');
echo "cell 1, cell 2";

Which should work across most major browsers.

edited Nov 08 '11 at 10:36

chiborg

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answered Dec 29 '08 at 18:11

Sean Bright

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score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 29 '08 at 18:14

12

You are not specifying a language or framework, but the following header is used for file downloads:

"Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=abc.csv"

answered Dec 29 '08 at 18:14

gimel

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score 5 · Answer 3 · answered May 04 '11 at 09:51

5

With Internet Explorer you often have to specify the Pragma: public header as well for the download to function properly..

header('Pragma: public');

Just my 2 cents..

answered May 04 '11 at 09:51

4levels

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Pragma: public has no meaning whatsoever for Internet Explorer. (I worked on the component in question, and I grepped the source). – EricLaw Aug 12 '13 at 19:38
Possibly the actual utility of this is to replace a preexisting Pragma: no-cache header? – Doin Jan 15 '14 at 14:38

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 23 '14 at 15:46

2

This code can be used to export any file, including csv

// application/octet-stream tells the browser not to try to interpret the file
header('Content-type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($data));
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="export.csv"');

edited Jan 23 '14 at 15:46

Bryan

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answered Mar 08 '13 at 10:27

Yuri Korolov

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"octetstream" is meant to be "octet-stream" – EricLaw Aug 12 '13 at 19:38
2

This can cause a warning in some browsers: Resource interpreted as Document but transferred with MIME type application/octet-stream – mikeschuld Sep 11 '13 at 17:23

How to use the CSV MIME-type?

4 Answers4

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