Download files in laravel using Response::download

Try this.

public function getDownload()
{
    //PDF file is stored under project/public/download/info.pdf
    $file= public_path(). "/download/info.pdf";

    $headers = array(
              'Content-Type: application/pdf',
            );

    return Response::download($file, 'filename.pdf', $headers);
}

"./download/info.pdf"will not work as you have to give full physical path.

Update 20/05/2016

Laravel 5, 5.1, 5.2 or 5.* users can use the following method instead of Response facade. However, my previous answer will work for both Laravel 4 or 5. (the $header array structure change to associative array =>- the colon after 'Content-Type' was deleted - if we don't do those changes then headers will be added in wrong way: the name of header wil be number started from 0,1,...)

$headers = [
              'Content-Type' => 'application/pdf',
           ];

return response()->download($file, 'filename.pdf', $headers);

File downloads are super simple in Laravel 5.

As @Ashwani mentioned Laravel 5 allows file downloads with response()->download() to return file for download. We no longer need to mess with any headers. To return a file we simply:

return response()->download(public_path('file_path/from_public_dir.pdf'));

from within the controller.

Reusable Download Route/Controller

Now let's make a reusable file download route and controller so we can server up any file in our public/files directory.

Create the controller:

php artisan make:controller --plain DownloadsController

Create the route in app/Http/routes.php:

Route::get('/download/{file}', 'DownloadsController@download');

Make download method in app/Http/Controllers/DownloadsController:

class DownloadsController extends Controller
{
  public function download($file_name) {
    $file_path = public_path('files/'.$file_name);
    return response()->download($file_path);
  }
}

Now simply drops some files in the public/files directory and you can server them up by linking to /download/filename.ext:

<a href="/download/filename.ext">File Name</a> // update to your own "filename.ext"

If you pulled in Laravel Collective's Html package you can use the Html facade:

{!! Html::link('download/filename.ext', 'File Name') !!}

In the accepted answer, for Laravel 4 the headers array is constructed incorrectly. Use:

$headers = array(
  'Content-Type' => 'application/pdf',
);

While using laravel 5 use this code as you don`t need headers.

return response()->download($pathToFile); .

If you are using Fileentry you can use below function for downloading.

// download file
public function download($fileId){  
    $entry = Fileentry::where('file_id', '=', $fileId)->firstOrFail();
    $pathToFile=storage_path()."/app/".$entry->filename;
    return response()->download($pathToFile);           
}

Quite a few of these solutions suggest referencing the public_path() of the Laravel application in order to locate the file. Sometimes you'll want to control access to the file or offer real-time monitoring of the file. In this case, you'll want to keep the directory private and limit access by a method in a controller class. The following method should help with this:

public function show(Request $request, File $file) {

    // Perform validation/authentication/auditing logic on the request

    // Fire off any events or notifiations (if applicable)

    return response()->download(storage_path('app/' . $file->location));
}

There are other paths that you could use as well, described on Laravel's helper functions documentation

Download files in laravel using Response::download

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