Custom headers

I am trying to create a download channel which should make it easier for users to publish their downloads.

To load a download, i use this template:

{exp:channel:entries channel="downloads" limit="1" dynamic="no" url_title="{segment_3}"}
    <?php
        if("{download_icon}"=="Pdf")
        {
      $file = "{download_file}";
          $file = str_replace("{site_url}","",$file);

           header('Content-type: application/pdf');
           header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename="{title}.pdf"');
           readfile($file);
         }
     ?> 
{/exp:channel:entries}

This forces the download to really download (not open in a buggy window). It also enables you to track the download with GoogleAnalytics.

Currently it only works for PDF files, i still have to include other headers.

My problem is that i cannot control the headers unless I hack a “Custom” template type into the template designer. This custom type is not recognized by the output class, in that way no headers are published (and i can publish them in my template).

This is all pretty dirty, there must be a better way to do this, can anyone help?