making files downloadable

[ian43]

Hi, I want to provide various file types for downloads on a site that I'm puting together. Some of these files will be images, some zip files, and some other types. What's the best way of implement this?

[creocast]

Not quite sure the php relevance of this question, but if you want a user to download say a zip file, just link to it the usual way you would link to any file <a href=blah.zip>Download blah.zip</a>

[ian43]

Hi,

Thanks for that, but I've tried that method and while it's perfectly ok for .zip files etc certain media files (sound, video) simply opens up the media player rather then force a download. I've been searching through the forums and there's several method mentioned - I'm wondering if anybody can recommed the best/most reliable method.

[creocast]

That explains what you are trying to do a bit more. The snippet of code you need is:

<?
function ForceFileDownload($file){
$filesize = @filesize($file);
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=".$file);
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
header("Content-Type: application/download");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
header("Pragma:no-cache");
header("Expires:0");
@set_time_limit(600);
readfile($file);
}
?>

Then just call this function e.g:

ForceFileDownload("picture.jpg");

(Replace picture.jpg with your filename to download.)

This will make the save to disk window come up. It will ask you if you want to download the file you are calling the function from, which is the only downside, but it does actually downoload the picture, media etc you specifield.

[ian43]

Thanks creocast,

that's an impressive snippet of code to my eyes. I'll try it out over the weekend and see how it goes.

[ian43]

Hi again,

I tried this out and it works a treat. The fact that the download box effectively 'hides' the real name of the file being downloaded is actually a bonus since it provides a better (if not intentional) level of security.

Thanks again.

[martinacevedo]

<?

header("HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content");

$filename="file.zip";

			if ($HTTP_RANGE){

		   			    $pos=strpos ($HTTP_RANGE, "bytes=");
						$pos2=strpos($HTTP_RANGE,"-");

						$bytes=substr ($HTTP_RANGE, $pos+strlen("bytes="),$pos2-($pos+strlen("bytes="))); 

						$ultimobyte=substr($HTTP_RANGE,$pos2+1,strlen($HTTP_RANGE));							
			}else{
						$bytes=0;
			}
			settype ($bytes, "integer");
			settype ($ultimobyte,"integer");

			if ($ultimobyte!=0) {
				$hasta=$ultimobyte;


			}else{

				$hasta=filesize($filename)-1;
			}


			$largo=$hasta-$bytes+1;
			$ttotal=filesize($filename);



			error_reporting(0);

		    header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s T", filemtime($filename)));
		    header("Accept-Ranges: bytes");
		    header("Content-Length: " . $largo);
		    header("Content-Disposition:attachment; filename="."file.zip");
			header("Content-Range: bytes ".$bytes."-".$hasta."/".$ttotal);

			header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
			header("Content-Type: application/download"); 
			header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary"); 
			header("Pragma:no-cache"); 
			header("Expires:0"); 
			set_time_limit(0); 

			$fp = fopen($filename,'rb');

			if (!$fp) {
				echo "error de apertura";
				exit();
			}
			rewind ($fp);
			fseek ($fp, $bytes);


			echo fread ($fp, $largo);






			header("Connection: close");






		    exit();

[martinacevedo]

my script is little diferent, it suppor resume for getright, download accelerator, and others download managers.
It´s work fine with php as apache module.

i have a problem, header("HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content"); doesnt work as cgi module and i dont know why, does anyobody know how can i make it?
php say
[Wed Jan 29 11:07:18 2003] [error] [client 200.43.42.120] malformed header
from script. Bad header=HTTP/1.1 206 Partial content:
/usr/local/php/bin//php

thanks

<?

header("HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content");

$filename="file.zip";

			if ($HTTP_RANGE){

		   			    $pos=strpos ($HTTP_RANGE, "bytes=");
						$pos2=strpos($HTTP_RANGE,"-");

						$bytes=substr ($HTTP_RANGE, $pos+strlen("bytes="),$pos2-($pos+strlen("bytes="))); 

						$ultimobyte=substr($HTTP_RANGE,$pos2+1,strlen($HTTP_RANGE));							
			}else{
						$bytes=0;
			}
			settype ($bytes, "integer");
			settype ($ultimobyte,"integer");

			if ($ultimobyte!=0) {
				$hasta=$ultimobyte;


			}else{

				$hasta=filesize($filename)-1;
			}


			$largo=$hasta-$bytes+1;
			$ttotal=filesize($filename);



			error_reporting(0);

		    header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s T", filemtime($filename)));
		    header("Accept-Ranges: bytes");
		    header("Content-Length: " . $largo);
		    header("Content-Disposition:attachment; filename="."file.zip");
			header("Content-Range: bytes ".$bytes."-".$hasta."/".$ttotal);

			header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
			header("Content-Type: application/download"); 
			header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary"); 
			header("Pragma:no-cache"); 
			header("Expires:0"); 
			set_time_limit(0); 

			$fp = fopen($filename,'rb');

			if (!$fp) {
				echo "error de apertura";
				exit();
			}
			rewind ($fp);
			fseek ($fp, $bytes);


			echo fread ($fp, $largo);






			header("Connection: close");






		    exit();