PHP - Forcing download a file not working

Question

code.php

$code = $_GET["code"];
$file = 'code/'.$code.'.html';

if (file_exists($file)) {
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($file).'"');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    readfile($file);
    exit;
}

Generated URL to download the file:

http://www.example.com/code.php?code=yoursite.com_nbsp63ibrf

Well, I want to forcing download the html file, above code not working and it just preview the file at browser!

Take a look here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20508788/do-i-need-content-type-application-octet-stream-for-file-download — SergkeiM, Jan 15 '16 at 08:58

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 15 '16 at 09:01

1

file_exists() returns false. Change your path with document root:

$code = $_GET["code"];
$file = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/code/' . $code . '.html'; // set your path from document root.
if (file_exists($file)) {
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($file).'"');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    readfile($file);
    exit;
}

answered Jan 15 '16 at 09:01

schellingerht

5,726
2
28
56

Thanks for answer, but still 'forcing download' not working, it just preview the html file at browser – Pedram Jan 15 '16 at 09:04
The most simple way is this: var_dump($file); So you can see the path is correct. If file_exists is true, the script stops after exit. ;-) – schellingerht Jan 15 '16 at 09:05
it will return "" string(79) "/xxxxx/homepages/5/d134578306/htdocs/MySite/code/yoursite.com_nbsp63ibrf.html "" the path is correct – Pedram Jan 15 '16 at 09:12
Okay, then: var_dump(file_exists($file)); If it returns true, it's good – schellingerht Jan 15 '16 at 09:15
yep, it return: bool(true) – Pedram Jan 15 '16 at 09:16

Julian F. Weinert · Answer 2 · 2016-03-25T16:50:03.127

0

This is actually not possible. The browser can always decide on its own, if the file should be downloaded or not.

The furthest you can go is sending the content-disposition header.

edited Mar 25 '16 at 16:50

answered Jan 15 '16 at 09:09

Julian F. Weinert

7,474
7
59
107

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 15 '16 at 09:19

0

Try changing the content type to match the file type and setting the transfer encoding to binary:

header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Content-Type: text/html');

answered Jan 15 '16 at 09:19

Rainner

589
3
7

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 15 '16 at 09:23

0

Try this

$code = $_GET["code"];
$file = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/code/' . $code . '.html'; // set your path from document root.
if (file_exists($file)) {
    header("Content-Type: text/html");
    header("Content-Type: application/force-download");   
    header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");   
    header("Content-Type: application/download");     
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($file).'"');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    readfile($file);
    exit;
}

answered Jan 15 '16 at 09:23

Ninju

2,522
2
15
21

Thanks but nothing changed.. still file won't download – Pedram Jan 15 '16 at 09:26
check the file exits in your directory. – Ninju Jan 15 '16 at 09:30
file exits, because it preview the file in browser! – Pedram Jan 15 '16 at 09:40
i checked with two browser, chrome, firefox, both not working and still preview the file instead of download – Pedram Jan 15 '16 at 09:43

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 16 '16 at 07:15

0

unfortunately it was a encoding issue. I changed code.php encoding from UTF-8 to UTF-8 Without BOM then problem solved. Thanks for all answers and helps. I forgot that PHP header only works with UTF-8 Without BOM.

answered Jan 16 '16 at 07:15

Pedram

15,766
10
44
73

PHP - Forcing download a file not working

5 Answers5