Laravel - Is there a way to return a view and download?

Question

Im trying to figure out a way i can return a view but also call the download function. Something like this:

return view('home')->download($filename, 'text.csv', $headers);

Answer 1

I don't think that it's possible. Laravel has to choose what to send to your browser. If it sends a redirect header you won't see the page.

The only solution is to render the view and in the view put a simple javascript like:

window.location.href = "<your file url>"

If this is a file it should start a download without changing page.

Answer 2

Currently there's a way to do it using a stream download. It's not pretty, but it works. Note the function has to echo and not return, hence why render() is called on the view.

return response()->streamDownload(function() {
        echo view('home')->render();
    }
    , 'test.csv'
    , ['Content-Type' => 'text/csv']
);