Get form fields in PHP and trigger file download

Hi @visedfaq Here is a code that will help you to achieve this but this might not be the perfect solution and you might need to modify the code according to your needs.

Add a Custom Function to Handle Form Submission:
You can add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or use a plugin that allow to insert code something like WPCode.

// Handle Form Submission
add_action('wpforms_process_complete', 'generate_text_file_on_submission', 10, 4);
function generate_text_file_on_submission($fields, $entry, $form_data, $entry_id) {
    // Check if it's the specific form ID you want to target
    if ($form_data['id'] == 8) { // Replace 8 with your form ID
        // Extract data from the form fields
        $first_name = $fields[0]['first']; // Replace 0 with your field ID
        $last_name = $fields[0]['last']; // Replace 0 with your field ID
        $email = $fields[1]['value']; // Replace 1 with your field ID
        $message = $fields[2]['value']; // Replace 2 with your field ID
        
        // Static data
        $static_data = "This is some static data.\n";

        // Combine data
        $file_content = "Name: $first_name $last_name\n";
        $file_content .= "Email: $email \n";
        $file_content .= "Message: $message \n";
        $file_content .= $static_data;

        // Generate text file
        $text_file_name = 'generated_file.txt';
        $upload_dir = wp_upload_dir();
        $text_file_path = $upload_dir['basedir'] . '/' . $text_file_name;
        file_put_contents($text_file_path, $file_content);

        // Create ZIP file
        $zip = new ZipArchive();
        $zip_file_name = 'generated_file.zip';
        $zip_file_path = $upload_dir['basedir'] . '/' . $zip_file_name;

        if ($zip->open($zip_file_path, ZipArchive::CREATE) === TRUE) {
            $zip->addFile($text_file_path, $text_file_name);
            $zip->close();
        }

        // Store the ZIP file path in a session variable
        session_start();
        $_SESSION['file_path'] = $zip_file_path;

        // Clean up the text file after adding to ZIP
        unlink($text_file_path);

        // Redirect to a URL that triggers the download
        $redirect_url = add_query_arg('download_file', '1', site_url());
        wp_redirect($redirect_url);
        exit;
    }
}

Add another function to serve the file for download.

// Handle File Download
add_action('init', 'handle_file_download');
function handle_file_download() {
    if (isset($_GET['download_file']) && $_GET['download_file'] == '1') {
        session_start();
        if (isset($_SESSION['file_path'])) {
            $file_path = $_SESSION['file_path'];
            if (file_exists($file_path)) {
                header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
                header('Content-Type: application/zip');
                header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($file_path) . '"');
                header('Expires: 0');
                header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
                header('Pragma: public');
                header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file_path));
                readfile($file_path);
                unlink($file_path); // Delete the file after download
                exit;
            }
        }
    }
}

Important Considerations:

• Security: Sanitize and validate user inputs to prevent security vulnerabilities.
• Sessions: Ensure your server supports sessions and they are properly configured in php.ini.
• Unique Filenames: Consider using unique filenames to prevent overwriting files and manage file cleanup.

This code should serve as a solid starting point. Adjust the field IDs and static data as needed to match your form and requirements.

Hi @visedfaq,

Yes, here is why I am archiving the .txt file after generating it. Basically, when I was testing the code, I noticed that the .txt file wasn’t downloaded automatically, but a .zip file did the trick. I didn’t dig into why the .txt file couldn’t be downloaded, but you might want to investigate that further and see if there’s a workaround.

I hope this clarifies the question.