Checking Download Status

[RodneyW]

trying to figure out how to "watch" the progress of a download and then perform an action if the download was succesful.

In a nutshell I want to be able to delete the file the user is downloading only if the download was successful, not sure the best way to go about this or if I can even accomplish it.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks!

[bpat1434]

I don't know if you can actually tell how much has gone specifically to that user. But what you can do is an alternative that a lot of people do.

You create a database that houses some info like: client username, client password, client file, date/time ordered/available. Now, you read the date/time from the database, and if that time is over, let's say a week, then you don't allow them to download it. If not, then they can.

Most companies I know that "customize" downloads per person, do it this way. They allow you to download it between a time-frame (usually 4 - 7 days).

That would be my best guess at how to do it.

~Brett

[bradgrafelman]

Indeed. If you're downloading a file through a PHP script or otherwise, you can't run a PHP script to check it; it's two different processes.

I would use the above solution. You could then make a script taht "cleans up" old files, by checking the filename against your DB, and if no active timeslots are available to any users, delete the file.

Not sure how else I can help ya, sorry.

[RodneyW]

so nothing that could be used in the php stream or ftp functions in conjunction with downloading a file?

What about redirection to specific page after download is complete?

[bpat1434]

Not that I know of. And if there's no way to tell if the download is complete, how do you expect to redirect after a completed download?

~Brett

[RodneyW]

yea .. just wishful hoping for a hint of a solution. 🙁

[bradgrafelman]

What is the exact environment we're working with here? What's the purpose of the redirection?

Can't you just start the download, and redirect to another page? Why do you need to know when the download is done? Just tell the user to wait...

[RodneyW]

Without getting into too much of the nuts and bolts and logic I am working on an online-application that allows a user to create a file that will be available for download.

I need to be able to remove the file after the download is completed. I have experimented using the shmod functions accessing the shared memory blocks but the data is flushed out when the download is initated regardless if the download was sucessfull or not, thus I need to be able to "see" that all the data was transmitted before removal of the file or contents.

I would think that there would be way to get a handle on the transfer, either thru ftp functions or maybe through the use of the stream functions with maybe the use of the STREAM_NOTIFY_COMPLETED constant but I can't find much infromation (that I can quickly comprehend) on proper syntax for using these commands.

Was hoping for at the very least a creative solution 🙂

[bradgrafelman]

How big is the file?

It may bog down your memory usage a bit, but I was thinking, maybe you should dynamically create the file? Do whatever functions you need to create the file, but store the contents in a PHP variable...

Just a thought.

[Kudose]

Maybe one of the boards genius' could elaborate on this, if it is even possible.

What about using a combination of stream_read and stream_tell to do this?

i.e. read the size of the file being transfered, every second tell the current posistion within the resource, and then do something when the stream_tell signals >= the orignal size?

Make sense? Possible? Probably not, but hey...I tried.

[RodneyW]

thats kinda where I was trying to go but I'm not too up to speed on the php stream functions and having a hrad time writing error free code 🙂

I do appreciate the reply!! Thanks!

[penny336]

here may help u

create a row record for the user when download a file

check the condition that if the download is complete, then write the flag to the record and set it is complete e.g. dl=yes

here is the code

// make sure the file exists before sending headers
if(!$fdl=@fopen($fileString,'rb')){
   die("Cannot Open File!");
} else {
  header("Cache-Control: ");// leave blank to avoid IE errors
  header("Pragma: ");// leave blank to avoid IE errors
  header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
  header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$fileName."\"");
  header("Content-length:".(string)(filesize($fileString)));
  sleep(1);
  rewind($fdl);
  if (fpassthru($fdl))
  {
  	$stmt ="INSERT INTO `checkcomplete` ( `refernum` , `filename` , `flag` ) 
		VALUES (
		'".date("H:i:s")."', '123', 'y')";
	db_query($stmt);
  }

}

hope this help
alex