php headers instant download videos

Question

I am trying to make a php script when you load on to that page it downloads a video. However since i do not know anything about headers it seems i can't figure it out so please explain why it works and how header works. I am trying to make the browser download video files.Can someone also explaain the headers and what they do please.

Here is my failing code:

<?php 
//Outputing video name
    $file_name = $_POST['FileToD'];
//outputting video extension e.g video/mp4
    $file_ext= $_POST['FileExt'];
//where the file is kept
    $file_path = 'mysever.myadress.com/media/movies/' . $file_name;
    header('Content-Type:'.$file_ext);
    header('Content-Length:' . filesize($file_path));
    header('Content-Description: attachment; filename='.$file_name);
    readfile($file_path);
?>

You didn't say *how* your code fails, but here's a hint how to make it work: remove ALL and every bit of HTML you have and just keep the part between `` and re-run your code. — N.B., Jul 11 '13 at 10:46
Check out server logs and/or on php error_reporting to include show notices/warnings. So any problem can be shown. — kuldeep.kamboj, Jul 11 '13 at 10:57

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '13 at 10:48

If you want to output a video, then don't start by outputting HTML and then switch to video data as part of the same file. (You can't set response headers after you've started outputting data anyway). Remove everything before <?php and after ?>
$file_url should be the path, on the server's file system, to the file you want to make available. It shouldn't be a URL (unless you want a really inefficient approach or need to proxy from a different server), and if it is a URL then it needs to start with the scheme (e.g. http://).
The content-type needs to be the actual content type of the video (e.g. video/mp4), not a file extension (and it doesn't make sense for it to be provided by the user).

You also need to sanitise the user data. At present (if the errors described above were fixed) then anybody could request any file that exists on the server.

Sorry its not a url its a path my variable is wrongly named sorry about that. It has know been fixed. — Asim Poptani, Jul 11 '13 at 10:51
File_Ext means file extension if iwas to echo this it would say video/mp4 or video/avi etc... — Asim Poptani, Jul 11 '13 at 10:55

php headers instant download videos

1 Answers1