PHP Force Download Causing 0 Byte Files

Question

I'm trying to force download files from my web server using PHP. I'm not a pro in PHP but I just can't seem to get around the problem of files downloading in 0 bytes in size.

CODE:

$filename = "FILENAME...";

header("Content-type: $type");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=$filename");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
header('Pragma: no-cache');
header('Expires: 0');
set_time_limit(0);
readfile($file);

Can anybody help? Thanks.

Answer 1

You're not checking that the file exists. Try using this:

$file = 'monkey.gif';

if (file_exists($file))
{
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($file));
    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    ob_clean();
    flush();
    readfile($file);
    exit;
}else
{
    echo "File does not exists";
}

And see what you get.

---

You should also note that this forces a download as an octet stream, a plain binary file. Some browsers will struggle to understand the exact type of the file. If, for example, you send a GIF with a header of Content-Type: application/octet-stream, then the browser may not treat it like a GIF image. You should add in specific checks to determine what the content type of the file is, and send an appropriate Content-Type header.

Answer 2

I use the following method in phunction and I haven't had any issues with it so far:

function Download($path, $speed = null)
{
    if (is_file($path) === true)
    {
        $file = @fopen($path, 'rb');
        $speed = (isset($speed) === true) ? round($speed * 1024) : 524288;

        if (is_resource($file) === true)
        {
            set_time_limit(0);
            ignore_user_abort(false);

            while (ob_get_level() > 0)
            {
                ob_end_clean();
            }

            header('Expires: 0');
            header('Pragma: public');
            header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
            header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
            header('Content-Length: ' . sprintf('%u', filesize($path)));
            header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($path) . '"');
            header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');

            while (feof($file) !== true)
            {
                echo fread($file, $speed);

                while (ob_get_level() > 0)
                {
                    ob_end_flush();
                }

                flush();
                sleep(1);
            }

            fclose($file);
        }

        exit();
    }

    return false;
}

You can try it simply by doing:

Download('/path/to/file.ext');