Deleting a File After User Download It

Deleting a file after user download it

unlink($filename);

This will delete the file.

It needs to be combined with ignore_user_abort()^Docs so that the unlink is still executed even the user canceled the download.

ignore_user_abort(true);

...

unlink($f);

Deleting a File from Storage after Download

There are two ways you can do this.

Let's assume you have a file in storage/app/download.zip:

1. Because Laravel uses Symfony's HttpFoundation internally, you can use the deleteFileAfterSend method:

public function download()
{
    return response()
        ->download(storage_path('app/download.zip'))
        ->deleteFileAfterSend(true);
}

2. Create a Terminable Middleware that deletes the file after the download response was prepared.

class StorageDownload
{
    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @param  \Closure  $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        return $next($request);
    }

    public function terminate($request, $response)
    {
        \Storage::delete('download.zip');
    }
}

You'll need to register the middlware and assign it to your route for it to work.

---

As for triggering the download using JavaScript, something as trivial as setting the window location will work:

axios
    .post('files/export/' + file.id, formData)
    .then(function() {
        window.location = 'files/download/' + file.id
    });

Don't worry, this will not navigate away from your current page, it will just trigger the download.

Delete file after using response.download() in node.js?

response.download has a callback function, you can delete your file after download as below

response.download(filePath, yourFileName, function(err) {
  if (err) {
    console.log(err); // Check error if you want
  }
  fs.unlink(yourFilePath, function(){
      console.log("File was deleted") // Callback
  });

  // fs.unlinkSync(yourFilePath) // If you don't need callback
});

delete file from the server after download in php

There is no way to know when the user finished downloading a file with PHP, I'd use a queue system to delete the file after n seconds of the request:

How to Build a PHP Queue System

Deleting a local file after download has finished

In the meantime I figured one can just encodeURI the contents of the csv file to download it without the need to write to a file on the disk. I'm rather new to web development, so I didn't know this was an option. Here is the code snippet for any other beginner like me, who encounters this problem (csv_name and csv_contents are sent from the bakcend)

function setCsvToDownload(csv_name, csv_contents) {
    var temp_download_link = document.createElement("a");
    temp_download_link.download = csv_name;
    temp_download_link.href = 'data:text/csv;charset=utf-8' + encodeURI(csv_contents);
    temp_download_link.target = '_blank';
    temp_download_link.click();
  }

delete a file after download in codeigniter

Sorry I was not reading, but the problem with your code is that it is missing the closing )

    public function remove_downloaded($file_name)
    {
       if(file_exists($file_name)) // here is the problem
         {
          unlink($file_name);
         }
    }

Also the way the force download works is that anything after will not run. I would suggest using an ajax call after the controller.

UPDATE:

But as you have mentioned in your comment, you can delete the file before creating it as mentioned in this post Unlink after force download not working Codeigniter

Delete a file after download it using nodejs

You can call fs.unlink() on the finish event of res.

Or you could use the end event of the file stream:

var file = fs.createReadStream(fileName);
file.on('end', function() {
  fs.unlink(fileName, function() {
    // file deleted
  });
});
file.pipe(res);

Deleting files after download in laravel

I personally use the following;

$response = Response::make(file_get_contents($path_to_file), $status_code, $headers);

Status code is obviously the code which you want to return.

Within the $header parameter you can pass an array with the indexes Content-Type and Content-Disposition.

Then you can simply unlink $path_to_file and return $response.

---

Much easier way of deleting a file would be to use Jon's answer for versions of Laravel > 4.0.

You can use deleteFileAfterSend http://laravel.com/docs/5.0/responses#other-responses

return response()->download($filePath, $fileName, $headers)->deleteFileAfterSend(true);

How to delete a file after downloading it with Response-download() in Laravel

Use the deleteFileAfterSend method:

return response()->download($filePath, $fileName, $headers)->deleteFileAfterSend(true);

File Download and Responses

//controller class
public function downloadAndDeleteCSV{
    ...
    return response()->download($filePath, $fileName, $headers)->deleteFileAfterSend(true);
}

---

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