PHP
PHP

PHP - Force file to download - not working

I'm trying to force the download of a file instead of displaying it in a browser and the below code allows me to download the file, but seems not to get the full file. I can not display any of the jpgs that I download. Any ideas on what I have wrong? Keep in mind images may be just one type of a download, as there could be .txt or .pdf etc...

<?php
$file="c:\upload_test\\robot-100_1.jpg"; //file location 
header("Content-Description: File Transfer"); 
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($file).'"'); 
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
header('Connection: close');
readfile($file);

?>

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keith1001Asked: 2015-06-22

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LVL 9

Mukesh YadavFull Stack DeveloperCommented: 2015-06-22

Remove line 7.

File is not downloading because you are saying browser that connection is closed. After receiving this header browser closes connection.

keith1001Author Commented: 2015-06-22

Even if I remove line 7, same issue.

Also changed line 4 to : image/jpg

It always appears the file is just a little smaller than what is suppose to be.

LVL 9

Mukesh YadavFull Stack DeveloperCommented: 2015-06-22

Means you are getting file smaller than it is actually?

LVL 84

Dave BaldwinFixer of ProblemsCommented: 2015-06-22

This is Ray Paseur's download demo that works 'perfectly'. I modified one line to use a local file on my system.

<?php // RAY_force_download.php
error_reporting(E_ALL);

// DEMONSTRATE HOW TO CAUSE A FILE DOWNLOAD

// REQUIRED FOR USE WITH THE PHP date() FUNCTIONS
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

// A FILE TO DOWNLOAD - THIS LINK COULD COME IN THE URL VIA $_GET, OR COULD BE GENERATED INSIDE THE SCRIPT
//$url = "http://www.LAPRBass.com/piechart.png";
$url = "../dibsw2k-logo.gif";

// THE USE CASE FOR THE FUNCTION
force_download($url);



// FUNCTION TO FORCE A DOWNLOAD FROM A FILE
function force_download($filename)
{
    // GET THE CONTENTS OF THE FILE
    $filedata = file_get_contents($filename);

    if ($filedata)
    {
        // GET A NAME FOR THE FILE
        $basename = basename($filename);

        // THESE HEADERS ARE USED ON ALL BROWSERS
        header("Content-Type: application-x/force-download");
        header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$basename");
        header("Content-length: ".(string)(strlen($filedata)));
        header("Expires: ".gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s", mktime(date("H")+2, date("i"), date("s"), date("m"), date("d"), date("Y")))." GMT");
        header("Last-Modified: ".gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s")." GMT");

        // THIS HEADER MUST BE OMITTED FOR IE 6+
        if (FALSE === strpos($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"], 'MSIE '))
        {
            header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");
        }

        // THIS IS THE LAST HEADER
        header("Pragma: no-cache");

        // FLUSH THE HEADERS TO THE BROWSER
        flush();

        // CAPTURE THE FILE IN THE OUTPUT BUFFERS - WILL BE FLUSHED AT SCRIPT END
        ob_start();
        echo $filedata;
    }

    // ERROR
    else
    {
        die("ERROR: UNABLE TO OPEN $filename");
    }
}

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LVL 9

Mukesh YadavFull Stack DeveloperCommented: 2015-06-22

Then confirm that you file exists or not?

LVL 65

Julian HansenCommented: 2015-06-22

Are you sure there is nothing wrong with your source image?

The code you works perfectly when I tested it on my own image.

LVL 111

Ray PaseurCommented: 2015-06-22

Can you view the file at the URL by typing its address into a browser window? If so, my force-download script should be able to download it. If not, there may be something wrong with the file or the file path.

Please give us a little more to go on, like a public-facing URL of the file. Once we have that we can experiment with it, and may be able to give you a tested and working example.

<?php // demo/force_download.php

/**
 * Show how to force a file download
 *
 * Choose a file to download, either via a hard-coded file path
 * or via a URL parameter like this
 *
 * path/to/demo/force_download.php?url=path/to/file.txt
 *
 * If you wanted to use the URL parameter, you might want to
 * (1) Secure the script with password protection
 * (2) replace the $url variable with something like this:
 * $url = $_GET['url'];
 *
 * If you use the URL parameter, be careful that the script
 * does not expose sensitive data on your server!
 */


// WHAT FILE DO WE WANT TO DOWNLOAD?
$url = "http://www.IcoNoun.com/demo/short_text_file.txt";


// USE CASE
force_download($url);



// FUNCTION TO FORCE A DOWNLOAD FROM A FILE
function force_download($url, $filename=NULL)
{
    // GET THE DOWNLOAD FILE NAME
    if (empty($filename)) $filename = basename($url);

    // GET LENGTH AND FILE RESOURCE POINTER
    $hdr = get_headers($url, TRUE);
    $len = trim($hdr['Content-Length']);
    $fpr = fopen($url,'rb');

    // ON SUCCESS
    if ($fpr)
    {
        // THESE HEADERS ARE USED ON ALL BROWSERS
        header("Content-Type: application-x/force-download");
        header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename");
        header("Content-length: $len");
        header("Expires: ".gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s", mktime(date("H")+2, date("i"), date("s"), date("m"), date("d"), date("Y")))." GMT");
        header("Last-Modified: ".gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s")." GMT");

        // THIS HEADER MUST BE OMITTED FOR IE 6+
        if (FALSE === strpos($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"], 'MSIE '))
        {
            header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");
        }

        // THIS IS THE LAST HEADER
        header("Pragma: no-cache");

        // FLUSH THE HEADERS TO THE BROWSER
        flush();

        // WRITE THE FILE
        fpassthru($fpr);
    }

    // ERROR
    else
    {
        trigger_error("ERROR: UNABLE TO OPEN $url", E_USER_ERROR);
    }
}

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LVL 84

Dave BaldwinFixer of ProblemsCommented: 2015-06-22

Ray, your script works fine to download image files too in the version I posted above.

keith1001Author Commented: 2015-06-22

My script downloads but the image will not display.

I run Ray's script above and it works.

LVL 111

Ray PaseurCommented: 2015-06-22

Dave, thanks. I updated the older version recently and added better comments for my teaching library. In most cases, either version would work correctly.