Using PHP to force image download doesn't work correctly

Question

I have an image link that is 100% fine. I can use it to link to the image, and I can use it to display the image. However whenever I try to use PHP's headers to force an image download, it doesn't work. Here's what I'm using:

            $file = $link;
            header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
            header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($file).'"'); 
            header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
            readfile($file);

The download starts and asks me where to save the image, as it should. However after the image is downloaded, it simply won't open. What am I doing wrong here?

what kind of image is it - is it a png or jpeg? does this have to work for either? — WEBjuju, Nov 25 '16 at 04:41
I have try your code and it's works perfect.. I think problem in your path...Check your path.\ — Nikhil Vaghela, Nov 25 '16 at 04:43
@NikhilVaghela I don't see how that is the case. I even used various images from the web to test this, and they all have the same problem. — PL200, Nov 25 '16 at 04:46
Be sure you do not have any additionl output. For example symbol for encoding with BOM. Try to put `exit;` after `readfile`. — rNix, Nov 25 '16 at 04:47
what you mean by saying **it simply won't open** is it corrupted when you are clicking image to open ? what is the size of the image you are able to see? — Mittul At TechnoBrave, Nov 25 '16 at 04:48
can you **echo $file;** ? is it relative path or http ? is should be relative i mean directory path .. — Mittul At TechnoBrave, Nov 25 '16 at 04:49
@MittulAtTechnoBrave What I mean is that no image viewer or editor can open the downloaded image. It's downloading from an online URL. — PL200, Nov 25 '16 at 04:50
oh, i think he's got a url that displays an image. i think the image is not local on his server yet. — WEBjuju, Nov 25 '16 at 04:52
@PL200 relative path needs to be used when we are supposed to download image. — Mittul At TechnoBrave, Nov 25 '16 at 04:52

WEBjuju · Answer 1 · 2016-11-25T04:54:19.943

0

You need to download the image first:

        $file = 'newimage.png';
        $file_contents = file_get_contents($link);
        file_put_contents($file, $file_contents);

Then you can output the image:

        header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
        header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($file).'"');
        header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
        readfile($file);
        exit();

edited Nov 25 '16 at 04:54

answered Nov 25 '16 at 04:42

WEBjuju

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This still has the same problem as I was having. – PL200 Nov 25 '16 at 04:44
try adding an exit after the readfile to be sure nothing else is going on. why do you have $file = $link. that seems counterintuitive - what is in $link is it the file path local on your server? – WEBjuju Nov 25 '16 at 04:50
$link is a URL to a website's image. – PL200 Nov 25 '16 at 04:51
@MittulAtTechnoBrave The image is not hosted on my website. It is hosted externally. – PL200 Nov 25 '16 at 04:53
@PL200 then you need to download from http of that server to your server's particular directory and then can open it ... – Mittul At TechnoBrave Nov 25 '16 at 04:54
@PL200 something like this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/724391/saving-image-from-php-url – Mittul At TechnoBrave Nov 25 '16 at 04:55
@MittulAtTechnoBrave Interesting. So it's not possible to use this PHP function with an external image? – PL200 Nov 25 '16 at 04:57
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/128989/discussion-between-mittul-at-technobrave-and-pl200). – Mittul At TechnoBrave Nov 25 '16 at 04:57

Using PHP to force image download doesn't work correctly

1 Answers1