Streaming pdf with session_start

[jcastro]

I am unable to stream a pdf when I use session_start().

If I comment the session_start it works . Otherwise when acrobat
opens it tells me that it is unable to open the file. I guess the session data is corrupting the strreamed file. But how can I protect the download if I cannot check the user???

<?php

//session_start();

include "end/html/htmllib.php";

$billId = intval(substr(Html::get("billId","GET","0"),0,10));
$filename = "c:/ebill/bills/$billId.pdf";

if (file_exists($filename) && $billId !=0)
{
header("Content-type: application/pdf");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment;

filename=$billId.pdf");
readfile($filename);
}
else
{
die ("FAILED");
}
?>

[thoand]

I Just had this problem, I found a way to work around by,

redirecting after adding the user to the database or authenticating the user (I guess that is what you trying to do)

try this:

<?
//If action is not set
if (!$action == "download") {
                //Start sesstions
	session_save_path("../sessions/");
	session_start();

            //Do your stuff with the user sessions here

            //Then redirect them do the file,
            //Now we set action
header("Location: ./download.php?action=download&file=".$file."");
}

//Now force the file to the browser, some of this stuff you actually dont need.

else {
	$getFileParts = explode(".",$file);
	$newFileName = $getFileParts[0]."(copy).".$getFileParts[1];
	header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT");
	header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");
	header("Content-length: " . filesize("../docweb/".$file));
	header("Content-type: application/pdf");
	header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename={$newFileName}");
	header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
	readfile("/path/to/your/".$file);
	unlink("/path/to/your/".$newFileName);
}
?>

This work fine.
regards,

Thomas A