[RESOLVED] Need help coding a PHP file to download files not on web folder

unclesasamon

Hello,

I am trying to setup a script where a user can download a file NOT in the web folder.

Here's what I have so far - I keep getting errors that PHP can't find the file, even though it's there..

readfile('C:/test.txt');
header('Content-type: text/plain');
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=C:/test.txt");
exit;

It's basic, but I'm lost on this one - thanks for any help!

NogDog

This will not necessarily fix everything, but the header()'s have to come before the readfile().

bradgrafelman

Fix the header() issue as NogDog pointed out.
The filename attribute of the Content-Disposition header should be just that - a filename, not the path to a file.
The filename attribute should be quoted (some browsers don't understand the header unless the attribute is quoted, others seem to work fine either way)

If the above steps don't fix your problem, copy and paste the exact PHP error message(s) you're getting.

unclesasamon

I figured out what the problem was...

Here is my code:

header("Content-type: text/plain");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=test.txt");
readfile("C:\php\includes\\test.txt") //Have to escape the \t
exit;

When I set the code to my C:\php\includes\ directory, I forgot to escape the \t, so I was getting an error that it couldn't find the file in C:\php\includes est.txt

Stupid me - thanks for your help!

bradgrafelman

Glad you got it resolved. Also note that a simple way to avoid this problem is to always use forward slashes (e.g. "c:/php/...").

NogDog

bradgrafelman wrote:
Glad you got it resolved. Also note that a simple way to avoid this problem is to always use forward slashes (e.g. "c:/php/...").

Or you can get real anal about it and do:

$path = "c:" . PATH_SEPARATOR . "php" . PATH_SEPARATOR . "includes" . PATH_SEPARATOR . "test.txt";

🙂