When building a web application, you oftentimes need to give users the ability to download a piece of data as a file. It could be a backup of configuration settings, reports, or other piece of information that is generated dynamically. The usual solution to this problem would be to have a dedicated export script that selects from a database and builds the file you need. However, as we will be proving in this short tutorial, there is another way.

We will make a jQuery plugin which, combined with a simple php script, can generate every kind of textual file, and make it available for download. You will initiate the download from your JavaScript front end by only providing the file contents, and leave the rest to the plugin.
 
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