<?php
/* Basic CakePHP helper to output plaintext content and prompt to save as file.
 * Based on CSVHelper:
 * http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/csv-helper-php5
 */
class PlaintextHelper extends AppHelper
{
	var $filename;
	
	public function render($output = '', $filename = null)
	{
		if (!empty($filename) && is_string($filename))
		{
			$this->setFilename($filename);
		}
		header ('Expires: Mon, 1 Apr 1974 05:00:00 GMT');
		header ('Last-Modified: ' . gmdate('D,d M YH:i:s') . ' GMT');
		header ('Pragma: no-cache');
		header('Content-disposition:attachment;filename='.$this->filename);
		header('Content-type: text/plain');
		
		return $this->output($output);
	}
	
	/**
	 * Sets the output filename. Automatically appends .txt if necessary.
	 *
	 * @param string $filename Filename to save as
	 * @access public
	 */
	public function setFilename($filename)
	{
		if (!empty($filename))
		{
			if (strtolower(substr($filename, -4)) != '.txt')
			{
				$filename .= '.txt';
			}
			$this->filename = $filename;
		}
	}
}

// controller:

var $helpers = array('Plaintext');

// VERY contrived example:

public function text($id)
{
	$this->set(
		'data',
		$this->User->read(null, $id)
	);
	$this->set('filename', 'user_'.$id.'_'.date('Y-m-d').'.txt');
	Configure::write('debug', 0);
	$this->layout = 'ajax';
	$this->viewPath = 'elements/users';
	$this->render('txt_dump');
}

// app/views/elements/users/txt_dump.ctp:

<?php
if (isset($filename)) $plaintext->setFilename($filename);

echo $plaintext->render($data['User']['first_name'] . ' ' . $data['User']['last_name']);