I am converting a web application to wordpress.
I need a way to write a page from the plugin with the http header from the plugin values.
Use cases:
(1) Extract a subset of plugin data in csv format into a spreadsheet.
(2) Export a private file (.doc, .xls, .txt, ...) as uploaded back into the native application.
The uploading and extraction code is working but when I try exporting a file,
the wordpress headers and menus have already been written. The ob_end_clean, header, header,
ob_clean, flush,readfile, and die approach deals with the tail end but not the start.
Being new to wordpress,
(1) is there a way to have full control of the http response? Disabling headers?
(2) should I not try to support a common business application on wordpress?
I have seen responses that
(1) have the site mug their template for either a page# or url parameter,
but I think it prohibitly ugly to require sites to manually.
(2) suppose it could also require a theme and try to bind the plugin to it.
I don't know how to do that or if it is possible.
(2) could such an plugin use a "static" page? I haven't figure that out.
(3) indicate that another platform such as Drupal is more appropriate for such activity.
Love to hear your thoughts.