Here is the problem I need to solve.
When a staff member logs on to receive his assignment he will need some MS Word documents which are stored on the server and need to be downloaded to his home computer. There are about 200 documents, 66 Kb to 220 Kb each, and a typical assignment will need about fifteen or so of them. (Different forms each time.)
I could list the documents as links and have him right-click on each one and then click "save as." But that is pretty ugly, and it's very error prone. Inevitably, the staff member will fail to download one or more forms.
(I probably could do something sexy with setting flags and try to not let him leave unless he's downloaded all of them, but that's "iffy" at best.)
The PHP header() function doesn't work because you can only send one header. That is, one file.
Using PHP ftp functions doesn't work, because those functions cannot access the machine on which the browser is running.
Zipping doesn't seem to present a solution, because it would have to happen without human intervention on the server.
What I want to do is after the staff member views the assignment is then "stream" the needed documents to a predetermined location on his computer automatically, and then display a message that says "Okay, you've got all the forms, go for it."