Copy a file to deliver to browser

[macgilli]

Hi, I'm looking for a suggestion on a way in which I can deliver a file to a browser without the browser giving the location of the file in the url.

In simple terms I have a table

tblDocument

documentid
documentname

I want to be able to pass the documentid to the php file and have some code that either copies from my (defaultdirectory . documentname) to a temp location for viewing by the browser. The files are of type pdf. Instead of actually copying the file though I was hoping to somehow stream the file directly to the browser (as opposed to making a copy, then pointing to that file).

I believe I should be able to do this with headers somehow, but I'm uncertain on how to proceed. Any suggestions on methodology or search keywords would be appreciated.

Aaron M.

[rrijnders]

Just use the <b>header()</b> directive to send the appropriate header for your pdf file and then use <b>fpassthru()</b> to stream the file to the browser.

see:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fpassthru.php

-- Rich Rijnders
-- Irvine, CA US

[cheald]

or, you could just do:

Header("Location:$url");

That'll do it 🙂

[macgilli]

🙂