Corrupted Download

steadyguy

I've been cracking open my head and I can't solve this ... if consulted my reference books, the online manual ... and still no luck. The problem is this in the code below, I am trying to allow a user to enter a password, to download an eBook ... I set the headers ... conduct the download ... only to find that the eBook is corrupted. It seems most likely that the problem is in the

readfile($eBook);

part ... anyone?

switch ($book)
	{
		case 'dynamics':
			$eBook = 'dynamics.pdf';
			break;
		//and so on ...
	}
	if($password == $code)
	{
		header("Content-type: application/pdf");
		header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=downloaded.pdf");
		readfile("$eBook");

sarahk

is it always corrupt or sometimes? I found I had problems if 2 people tried to download at once. Led to some technical decisions based upon site traffice etc.

diego25

Also try opening the 2 files, or use diff command, and see where they differ. Maybe it's something obvious...

Diego

Weedpacket

Are you using readfile($eBook) or readfile("$eBook")? Should be the former - wonder if the latter is doing any unwanted conversion of the binary data?

diego25

Hmm...but I think $eBook is the filename, so it's not the binary data...The binary data should be printed out inside the readfile() function, so the quotes around the argument shouldn't matter...

Diego

Weedpacket

Originally posted by diego25
Hmm...but I think $eBook is the filename, so it's not the binary data...The binary data should be printed out inside the readfile() function, so the quotes around the argument shouldn't matter...

Diego

Oh, yeah, I was thinking of fpassthru... sorry.

Do other file types get corrupted (image, text, ...)?

Xzone5

Does $php_errormsg say anything about it?

steadyguy

Thanks all for your input ...

To answer questions:

It's always corrupted ... in both Netscape and IE.

I tried both readfile($eBook), and readfile("$eBook")

No errors are generated in PHP ... so $php_errormsg, probably won't be of help (though I haven't checked).

An idea occurred to me last night, just before I fell asleep ... maybe I should put the switch inside the if statement, that way I don't need to use the variable with the readfile function ... I'll try it and see.

I also thought that maybe sending the headers and then later including a file and so on might append that data to the download, but then how do I get a thank you message? JavaScript?

I'll try them both and let you know ...

steadyguy

Ok. I've been fooling around.

Putting the switch statement inside the if didn't make a difference, neither did removing the lines of code.

However ... when I changed the value of $eBook to 'something.jpg' the image came through fine ...

Now I'm really stumped ...

gmcanany

I have a similar problem with corrupt downloads.

Are you outputting any HTML after your download?

If, like in my scenario, you have 2 php files, A and B. A calls B, B downloads a file, but A continues to output HTML after the call to B. And hey presto, a corrupted download.

If you have any of the above scenario's, try not executing any php, or outputting any html after your download statement.

I am still trying to figure out the neatest way to log a download, fire off the download process, and keep the user on the same web page. I have had to resort to javascript: this.Open command.

Graham.