PHP and MySQL Web Development 4th Ed-tqw-_darksiderg

Solution Overview
787
Listing 32.3
Continued
$output = str_replace('', $date, $output);
// send the generated document to the browser
echo $output;
}
?>
This script performs some basic error checking to make sure that all the user details have
been passed in and then moves to the business of creating the certificate.
The output of this script will be an RTF file rather than an HTML file, so you need
to alert the user’s browser to this fact.This is important so that the browser can attempt
to open the file with the correct application or give a Save As… type dialog box if it
doesn’t recognize the .rtf extension.
You specify the MIME type of the file you are outputting by using PHP’s header()
function to send the appropriate HTTP header as follows:
header('Content-type: application/msword');
header('Content-Disposition: inline, filename=cert.rtf');
The first header tells the browser that you are sending a Microsoft Word file (not strictly
true, but the most likely helper application for opening the RTF file).
The second header tells the browser to automatically display the contents of the file
and that its suggested filename is cert.rtf.This is the default filename the user will see
if he tries to save the file from within his browser.
After the headers are sent, you open and read the template RTF file into the $output
variable and use the str_replace() function to replace the placeholders with the actual
data that you want to appear in the file. For instance, the line
$output = str_replace('', $name, $output);
replaces any occurrences of the placeholder with the contents of the variable
$name.
Having made your substitutions, it’s just a matter of echoing the output to the browser.
A sample result from the rtf.php script is shown in Figure 32.5.
This approach works very well. The calls to str_replace() run very quickly, even
though the template and therefore the contents of $output are fairly long.The main
problem from the point of view of this application is that the user will load the certificate
in his word processor to print it.This is probably an invitation for people to modify
the output. RTF does not allow you to make a read-only document.