File Download misery

gorrilaX

I have a file-download script that works fine - you can open or save the file under the correct name and filesize. BUT, whilst the file is downloading I can't go to another page in my browser - i have to wait for the file to fully download before I can do so!

Here is the important part of the code I'm using....

// Cache
header("Expires: 0");
header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");
header("Cache-control: private");

// Force-download dialog
header("Content-Type: ".$rec['mimeType']);
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=".basename($rec['fileName']).";");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
header("Content-Length: ".filesize($docFile));

// Dump file and exit
$fd = fopen($docFile, "rb");
$fData = fread($fd, filesize($docFile));
fclose ($fp);
print $fData;
exit();

This script gets called via a simple URL link, eg: <a href="download.php?file=123">download me</a>

Can anyone spot what I'm doing wrong???

paulnaj

If it's opening into the same window that called the page, I can't see how you can do anything else.

You could try ...

<a href="download.php?file=123" target="_blank">download me</a>

... that might work.

gorrilaX

thanks for the response paulnaj.

Yes I've tried target="_blank" and that does solve the problem above, but throws up another one - the blank window remains there if the user decides to 'save' the file. If they 'open' or 'cancel' the blank window disappears! I want to avoid this extra window as it's messy and means the user has to close another window that shouldn't really be there.

any suggestions?

gorrilaX

In fact, even opening in a new window doesn't solve it! You still have to wait for the entire file to download before moving onto another page.

This is becoming very fustrating as it's quite a serious bug yet I can't find any solution for it on the web.

I'm using IE6.0 mainly but have also tested it on Mozilla on redhat 9.0 - still the same problem even with opening it in a new window.

please, can someone point out either what's wrong with my code above or whether they've come across a solution for this.

paulnaj

Hi gorillaX,

Not been around for a day or two.

I've never had to solve the problem you've got at the moment.

Got a couple of ideas, though.

If the file is really big, why not chop into sections, and display smaller chunks bit by bit.

If the file is just text, call it 123.txt. The browsers that can display it will, without going through PHP and the ones that can't should open the 'download file' box.

gorrilaX

thanks for the ideas, but the files are a mix of all sorts and chopping them up into smaller chunks will be a bit messy - plus you'd still have to wait for the small chunks to download before moving pages (the files can range from 1byte to 30Mb)

I just can't believe that no one else has come across this problem. I must be missing something as blatant as the sky! I'll keep looking though.

paulnaj

Your real problem is the size of the files. Browsers just aren't really designed to cope with that much data.

One other lead you might follow up is the section in the manual called Output Control Functions

... especially flush().

That's about it for me, I'm afraid. Good luck.

gorrilaX

ok paulnaj, thanks for your efforts - i'll take a look at that section of the manual.

squison

This is the line I usually use to force downloading. It probably doesn't get the mime type right but it does force downloading instead of the browser attemping to open it in the window.

Try replacing "header("Content-Type: ".$rec['mimeType']); "

with:

header("Content-type: application/octet-stream", TRUE);

I usually do this with excel files or PDFs that I want the user to save, not open in the window.

gorrilaX

hi squison. thanks for that.
I've tried that before along with application/force-download, application/download, etc, but all with no luck.

I'm also starting a session before submitting these headers to the page - could this affect it in any way do you think?

gorrilaX

Right, after a little more digging I've dicovered that is in fact the session that is causing all the problems. However I needed the session opened to get the file information and the current user's permissions for that file. So, the following code allows me to get this session info and still download the file properly:

<?php
session_start();
// ...do all session related coding here...
session_write_close();

// ... write headers here as above...
?>

one little line makes all the difference - and that worked without having to open in a new _blank browser window!

phew!

nodi

useful thread 🙂