[RESOLVED] Trouble downloading file

daltman1967

I posted this question on a couple of boards months ago, but forgot which ones, and put the problem on the back burner. Now I'm getting back to it, and I'm as stumped as I was before.

I have a few .mp3 files I've used as test objects. The file information is stored in a MYSQL database, and the actual files are stored in a directory on my server. The script is getting the proper name, but when the files are downloaded...

Well, two of the files play properly. The other two will not play at all. I'm almost positive it's a MIME issue, but I can't be certain. I've tried everything I can think of to make the script download these right, but to no avail. If I copy the files manually using Filezilla, the files copy fine and work properly, so I know that the files themselves are good. It's the download process that's screwed up.

Here's my code:

    $dir="../Images/Audio/";
    $s=$_GET['study'];
    $query  = "SELECT * FROM audio WHERE id='$s'";
    $result = mysql_query($query);
    $filename = mysql_result($result,0,"Filename");
    $file=$dir.$filename;

$file_extension = strtolower(substr(strrchr($file,"."),1));
$mime_types=array();
$mime_types['afl']   = 'video/animaflex';
$mime_types['aif']   = 'audio/aiff';
$mime_types['aifc']  = 'audio/aiff';
$mime_types['aiff']  = 'audio/aiff';
$mime_types['asf']   = 'video/x-ms-asf';
$mime_types['asx']   = 'video/x-ms-asf';
$mime_types['au']    = 'audio/basic';
$mime_types['avi']   = 'video/avi';
$mime_types['avs']   = 'video/avs-video';
$mime_types['dif']   = 'video/x-dv';
$mime_types['dl']    = 'video/dl';
$mime_types['dv']    = 'video/x-dv';
$mime_types['fli']   = 'video/fli';
$mime_types['fmf']   = 'video/x-atomic3d-feature';
$mime_types['funk']  = 'audio/make';
$mime_types['gl']    = 'video/gl';
$mime_types['gsd']   = 'audio/x-gsm';
$mime_types['gsm']   = 'audio/x-gsm';
$mime_types['isu']   = 'video/x-isvideo';
$mime_types['it']    = 'audio/it';
$mime_types['jam']   = 'audio/x-jam';
$mime_types['kar']   = 'audio/midi';
$mime_types['la']    = 'audio/nspaudio';
$mime_types['lam']   = 'audio/x-liveaudio';
$mime_types['lma']   = 'audio/nspaudio';
$mime_types['m1v']   = 'video/mpeg';
$mime_types['m2a']   = 'audio/mpeg';
$mime_types['m2v']   = 'video/mpeg';
$mime_types['m3u']   = 'audio/x-mpequrl';
$mime_types['mid']   = 'audio/midi';
$mime_types['midi']  = 'audio/midi';
$mime_types['mjf']   = 'audio/x-vnd.audioexplosion.mjuicemediafile';
$mime_types['mjpg']  = 'video/x-motion-jpeg';
$mime_types['mod']   = 'audio/mod';
$mime_types['moov']  = 'video/quicktime';
$mime_types['mov']   = 'video/quicktime';
$mime_types['movie'] = 'video/x-sgi-movie';
$mime_types['mp2']   = 'audio/mpeg';
$mime_types['mp3']   = 'audio/mpeg';
$mime_types['mpa']   = 'audio/mpeg';
$mime_types['mpe']   = 'video/mpeg';
$mime_types['mpeg']  = 'video/mpeg';
$mime_types['mpg']   = 'video/mpeg';
$mime_types['mpga']  = 'audio/mpeg';
$mime_types['mv']    = 'video/x-sgi-movie';
$mime_types['my']    = 'audio/make';
$mime_types['pfunk'] = 'audio/make';
$mime_types['qcp']   = 'audio/vnd.qcelp';
$mime_types['qt']    = 'video/quicktime';
$mime_types['qtc']   = 'video/x-qtc';
$mime_types['ra']    = 'audio/x-pn-realaudio';
$mime_types['ram']   = 'audio/x-pn-realaudio';
$mime_types['rm']    = 'audio/x-pn-realaudio';
$mime_types['rmi']   = 'audio/mid';
$mime_types['rmm']   = 'audio/x-pn-realaudio';
$mime_types['rmp']   = 'audio/x-pn-realaudio';
$mime_types['rpm']   = 'audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin';
$mime_types['rv']    = 'video/vnd.rn-realvideo';
$mime_types['s3m']   = 'audio/s3m';
$mime_types['scm']   = 'video/x-scm';
$mime_types['sid']   = 'audio/x-psid';
$mime_types['snd']   = 'audio/basic';
$mime_types['tsi']   = 'audio/tsp-audio';
$mime_types['tsp']   = 'audio/tsplayer';
$mime_types['vdo']   = 'video/vdo';
$mime_types['viv']   = 'video/vivo';
$mime_types['vivo']  = 'video/vivo';
$mime_types['voc']   = 'audio/voc';
$mime_types['vos']   = 'video/vosaic';
$mime_types['vox']   = 'audio/voxware';
$mime_types['vqe']   = 'audio/x-twinvq-plugin';
$mime_types['vqf']   = 'audio/x-twinvq';
$mime_types['vql']   = 'audio/x-twinvq-plugin';
$mime_types['wav']   = 'audio/wav';
$mime_types['wma']   = 'audio/x-ms-wma';
$mime_types['xdr']   = 'video/x-amt-demorun';
$mime_types['xm']    = 'audio/xm';
$mime_types['xsr']   = 'video/x-amt-showrun';

$ext=strtolower(substr(strrchr($file,'.'),1));
$mime=$mime_types[$ext];

if(ini_get('zlib.output_compression'))
  ini_set('zlib.output_compression', 'Off');

header('Pragma: public'); 
header('Expires: 0'); 
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0'); 
header('Cache-Control: private', false); 
header('Content-Type: '. $mime); 
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'. $filename .'"'); 
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary'); 
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file)); 

readfile($file);
exit();

I tried attaching the zip file of the files, but I can't get it to work. The file is available at http://www.therefugechurch.info/audio.zip. The two that won't work right are "My-Redeemer-LivesHS.mp3" and "01 What If His People Prayed.mp3" Any help is greatly appreciated.

sneakyimp

I was having a similar problem with files that I had created using iTunes. These files were typically given a file extension of '.m4a' by the Mac I was using. I tried giving them a mime type of audio/mpeg and they wouldn't play back. I did some research and determined that a mime type of audio/mp4 would work -- at least on my machine.

Not sure if that'll help any. Generally speaking, depending on the name of a file to determine it's mime type is not always a good idea. You might consider using Fileinfo PECL extension or MIME_Type PEAR package to sniff out the real mime type.

daltman1967

Well... it seems as if Fileinfo PECL extension is for UNIX, and I have no idea what PEAR is for the MIME_Type PEAR package. My server is Windows, and I can't change anything on it. If there's a .php version of the same thing, I haven't found it. 🙁

sneakyimp

The PEAR link I sent is pure PHP. You just have to download the file(s). You may also have to download some other PEAR files that it depends on, but it does not require any config changes on the server.

daltman1967

Yes, the MIME_Type file is pure php, but the pear it requires isn't. It seems to require access to the php5.ini file, which I don't have access to.

with the lines:
require_once 'MIME_Type-1.2';
$filename = '/path/to/some/file.jpg';
echo MIME_Type::autoDetect($filename);

I get:
Warning: require_once(MIME_Type-1.2) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory...
Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'MIME_Type-1.2' (include_path='.;C:\php5\pear')...

1). Both the file MIME_Type-1.2 and PEAR-1.9.1 have no file extensions. The "Type.php" doesn't exist, unless it's MIME_Type-1.2.
2). I have no access to my php5.ini file.

Isn't there an easier way? Or am I doing something wrong? I am very frustrated! 🙁

bradgrafelman

The file you download from the PEAR site is called "MIME_Type-1.2.0.tgz", which is a compressed archive (WinRAR can open it, other software packages such as WinZip, 7z, etc. probably can as well).

Inside of that archive, you'll find Type.php as well as a Type subfolder inside of 'MIME_Type-1.2.0/MIME'. While PEAR packages don't require that you install PEAR, per sé, you still need to have the PEAR.php file in your include path.

Normally, what you'd do is create your own includes folder and add that to the [man]include_path[/man] PHP directive (e.g. via a .htaccess file or a custom php.ini file, whichever is applicable/available as per your host's setup). Inside of that folder, you'd upload the PEAR.php file that all of the PEAR packages require, and then extract the packages' main subfolder into that includes directory. In the case of the MIME_Type package, you'd extract 'MIME_Type-1.2.0.tgz/MIME_Type-1.2.0/MIME' to 'your_include_dir/MIME' so that you'd load the package by doing:

require_once 'MIME/Type.php';

daltman1967

I'm more confused than ever.

The file at http://pear.php.net/package/MIME_Type is 'MIME_Type-1.2.0.gz'. It is not a .tgz file, and it contains only ONE file. Likewise, the PEAR-1.9.1.gz contains only ONE file. I read the Pear board's "Installation" instructions, and cannot understand just how I'm supposed to install this.

First, I don't have the files. I've followed their links several times, but I cannot seem to get anywhere. Second, even if I had the files, their instructions don't tell you how to install Pear - they seem to go from "it's easy to install" to "once you've installed..." and then confuses the matter by saying "once you've installed PHP!"

There's all sorts of command-line type instructions, but none of them seem to apply, or else are difficult to understand. The ones with the $ I assume are UNIX instructions.

First, I would need a link to the proper files so that I can download the complete set of what I need. Then, I will need directions on just what to do to set this up.

I have FileZilla; I can create directories on my server. I can copy files to my server. That is ALL. I cannot edit path environments, php.ini files, or the like. Usually, I get a script off some website. I copy the script into my /Scripts directory, point my code to that directory, and voila! I have a working script.

This is what I was hoping to do here. I am increasingly frustrated. Any help I can get is greatly appreciated.

bradgrafelman

daltman1967;10955490 wrote:
The file at http://pear.php.net/package/MIME_Type is 'MIME_Type-1.2.0.gz'. It is not a .tgz file

Not sure where you're seeing that, but when I clicked the "Download" tab (taking me here), and then clicked the download link under "For manual installation only" (which pointed here), I was prompted to download the .tgz file I mentioned above.

daltman1967;10955490 wrote:
their instructions don't tell you how to install Pear - they seem to go from "it's easy to install" to "once you've installed..."

Erm... not sure where you were reading about PEAR installation, but the Installation section of their manual breaks down the entire process, beginning with a discussion of what the PEAR package manager is and whatnot.

daltman1967;10955490 wrote:
then confuses the matter by saying "once you've installed PHP!"

Did you continue reading? They didn't confuse matters - they explained how PHP has simplified them. The default installation of PHP on Windows comes with batch scripts designed to guide you through the installation process.

daltman1967;10955490 wrote:
There's all sorts of command-line type instructions, but none of them seem to apply, or else are difficult to understand.

They all apply to the context they were given in. For example, the sentence preceding the first CLI instruction starts off with "To update your PEAR installation..." and then goes on to explain how to do that.

daltman1967;10955490 wrote:
The ones with the $ I assume are UNIX instructions.

That's a fair assumption (though the ending prompt character varies from server to server and even from user to user (e.g. allowing for custom bash profiles/configs, root vs. non-root users, etc.).

Then again, why assume anything? Each section on that manual page is preceded with a heading that clearly describes what that section deals with: Windows, Unix/Linux/BSD, Mac OS X, PEAR in hosting environments.

First, I would need a link to the proper files so that I can download the complete set of what I need. Then, I will need directions on just what to do to set this up.

daltman1967;10955490 wrote:
I cannot edit path environments, php.ini files, or the like.

Surely your host provides some mechanism (e.g. either a custom php.ini file you can place in a certain location that PHP will parse, or perhaps by using the php_* Apache directives in a .htaccess file) to alter PHP configuration directives (such as the include_path I was talking about before).

daltman1967;10955490 wrote:
Usually, I get a script off some website. I copy the script into my /Scripts directory, point my code to that directory, and voila! I have a working script.

Ah, but if that were the case, a seasoned "PHP Programmer" would nothing more than a user experienced in searching and downloading files! :p

daltman1967;10955490 wrote:
Any help I can get is greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't mind writing a "How to manually install PEAR without relying on any automated installers" type of guide (it's really not that hard to do), but you'll still have to find out how to set custom values for PHP directives such as include_path (otherwise you'd have to modify a bunch of .php files you get from PEAR. As I said above, normally this is done either by placing your own php.ini file in a certain location in which the PHP parser is configured to look, or PHP was loaded as an Apache module and you can use the php_* Apache directives in a .htaccess file.

That's something you'd find out from your host. If they don't offer any method of doing so, then please let us know which host you're using so we can all have a good laugh at them (and then you should find a different one 😉).

sneakyimp

If you don't have command-line access and you're not using *nix on your machine, you can probably ignore the command-line install instructions altogether.

If you have linux command-line access and don't have the right permissions, you can ignore the command-line instructions.

If you do have linux command-line access and proper permissions (probably root is required) then you can try the CLI install. If you get an error like -bash: pear: command not found then you might have to go looking for the pear executable file which might be something like /usr/bin/pear or something like that.

If you get the CLI install to work, I think it will put the pear files in the main PHP path so that you can include them from any PHP file on your server -- not just your current public_html directory. This can be really convenient because PEAR has some really helpful stuff.

If you are relying on FTP to install any files you use, this is still feasible. You just have to download the various pear files until PHP stops complaining. This can be a bit of a hassle but is not horrible if you get what you want.

The MIME_Type documentation has this sample code:

<?php
require_once 'MIME/Type.php';

$filename = '/path/to/some/file.jpg';
echo MIME_Type::autoDetect($filename);
?>

The MIME_Type download page has a link that says "for manual installation only" and links to :
http://download.pear.php.net/package/MIME_Type-1.2.0.tgz

Now I understand your confusion. Extracting that tgz file creates a folder called "MIME_Type-1.2.0" or something like that. But if you look inside that folder once you extract it, you'll see a directory named MIME. This is what you want. See the require_once statement in the sample code? It refers to a file Type.php in the folder named MIME.

I hope you see what I mean.

Chances are that file will complain and ask for still more PEAR types that it depends on in order to function. You'll just have to download them. You'll probably also need to get the file PEAR.php which is the sort of root dependency of all PEAR types. You'll probably have to get a handful of depependencies before it finally works.

This may sound painful, but PEAR has some really good stuff including MDB2 and Mail, among other things.

bradgrafelman

sneakyimp wrote:
If you do have linux command-line access and proper permissions (probably root is required)

No special permissions are required to install PEAR. Sure, if you want to install packages into something like /usr/share/php or /usr/local/share/php, then yeah, you have to have write access to those folders. It's entirely possible, however, to use the Unix CLI for PEAR in a user-centered mode (e.g. all of the destination directories are within your home directory).

daltman1967

Several notes:

The download link under "For manual installation only" for BOTH the MIME type and Pear files provide a file which is labeled as a .gz rather than a .tgz file. I verified this several times.

The problem I had before was that I wasn't getting any content when unzipping these files. Once I renamed them to .tgz, the files extracted properly. NOW I have the right files.

As far as confusion on the Pear page, it is indeed confusing. One does not "install" PHP. PHP simply IS. It exists. I cannot install or uninstall it.

Finally, my host DOES NOT provide ANY mechanism (other than writing my own PHP5.ini file, which they will not support) to alter PHP configuration directives such as the include_path. I can put files in the directories, and that is all.

And indeed, becoming an a seasoned "PHP Programmer" starts with being a user experienced in searching and downloading files. The person, like myself, can then learn from these files, discovering, step-by-step, how to do various PHP functions. Once these functions are learned, that person can then apply them to many varied situations. Everything I've learned so far (which is quite a bit) can be attributed to file searches such as this.

Now that I have the files, I may indeed have to modify a bunch of .php files gotten from PEAR to make it work. The first hurdle - getting the files - has now been crossed. Now I will copy them to my server and see what I can see.

"Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smell bad."
-- Spock. I, Mudd

daltman1967

BTW, thanks to sneakyimp. The command-line stuff was just confusing things more. If all I have to do is put the files in place... (I hope) that will take care of everything.

sneakyimp

Not sure why you would be getting .gz instead of .tgz. Empty file archives would certainly be a disconcerting starting point. Glad you sorted it.

Here's how I go about this. I take the sample code:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);

require_once 'MIME/Type.php';

$filename = '/users/christopherwalsh/desktop/Picture 2.png';
echo MIME_Type::autoDetect($filename);
?>

Which gives an error:

Warning: require_once(MIME/Type.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/test/index.php  on line 4

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'MIME/Type.php' (include_path='.:/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5.3/lib/php') in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/test/index.php on line 4

So then I go to the PEAR repository and find a link for the MIME_Type source code and I download it to the directory where my file is (which is called index.php.

FYI, I use the following CLI commands on a mac

// download the source code into a file named m.tgz
curl http://download.pear.php.net/package/MIME_Type-1.2.0.tgz > m.tgz
// extract the contents of m.tgz
tar -xvzf m.tgz
// list the contents of the current folder which shows that a dir named
// MIME_Type-1.2.0 has been created
ls -l
// list contents of MIME_Type-1.2.0 which shows a subdir named MIME.
// this is what i want
ls -l MIME_Type-1.2.0
// move MIME out of that subdir and into the current dir
mv MIME_Type-1.2.0/MIME ./
// delete the MIME_Type-1.2.0 to clean things up
rm -fr MIME_Type-1.2.0
// delete package.xml left over from the archive extraction
rm package.xml
// remove the archive
rm m.tgz

Now all I have in the current directory is my index.php and a subdir named MIME. Now back to my original file:

image/png

It works! If there were other dependencies, PEAR code will complain about them and I might have to download them in the same fashion.

bradgrafelman

daltman1967;10955632 wrote:
The download link under "For manual installation only" for BOTH the MIME type and Pear files provide a file which is labeled as a .gz rather than a .tgz file. I verified this several times.

Not sure what browser/operating system you're using, but on IE, Chrome, and Firefox on Windows the download link was presented as:

                <div class="package-download-action download"> 
                    <h4>Download</h4> 
                    <p class="action-hint">For manual installation only</p> 
                    <p class="action"> 
                        <a href="http://download.pear.php.net/package/MIME_Type-1.2.0.tgz">1.2.0</a>                    </p> 
                </div>

daltman1967;10955632 wrote:
As far as confusion on the Pear page, it is indeed confusing. One does not "install" PHP. PHP simply IS. It exists. I cannot install or uninstall it.

Maybe you can't, but someone can (and did, else PHP wouldn't be there).

daltman1967;10955632 wrote:
Finally, my host DOES NOT provide ANY mechanism (other than writing my own PHP5.ini file, which they will not support) to alter PHP configuration directives such as the include_path. I can put files in the directories, and that is all.

Ouch. I'm sure glad neither I nor any of my clients use your host provider. :p

daltman1967;10955632 wrote:
Now that I have the files, I may indeed have to modify a bunch of .php files gotten from PEAR to make it work.

Yup. They're all going to contain lines such as:

require_once 'Pear.php';

(as well as similar lines for each PEAR dependency, I would presume) which are going to fail, since you apparently can't modify the include_path PHP directive. You'll have to replace that relative path with the correct path to wherever you upload the Pear.php file.

daltman1967

Once I was finally able to unpack PEAR, I was also able to install it through the web browser option. This took awhile, until I saw a checkbox which said something about browser compatability.

Once the files were installed, I began testing. Sure enough, I had problems right of the bat. For whatever reason, 'require once' doesn't seem to like indirect references (i.e., ../scripts/blah.txt). I pointed to the right directory, but it still said it couldn't find it.

I then got brilliant. I simply put the type.php and its dependencies right in the same directory as pear.php. Voila! They found PEAR and produced output... but... the damned thing is, the file download STILL doesn't work!!! :mad:

Here's my code:
require_once 'PEAR/Type.PHP';
//Type and its dependencies are in the PEAR directory so that they
//can directly access it.
$mime=MIME_Type::autoDetect($file);
if(ini_get('zlib.output_compression')) ini_set('zlib.output_compression', 'Off');

header('Pragma: public'); 
header('Expires: 0'); 
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0'); 
header('Cache-Control: private', false); 
header('Content-Type: '. $mime); 
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'. $filename .'"'); 
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary'); 
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file)); 

readfile($file);

The output for my four files was as follows:
//1 audio/mpeg Israel-SaySo.mp3 (Works)
//2 audio/mpeg My-Redeemer-LivesHS.mp3 (Not Working)
//3 audio/mpeg Every Prayer (Featuring Mary Mary).mp3 (Works)
//4 audio/x-ms-wma 01 What If His People Prayed.wma (Not Working)

The two which do not work are, of course, the same two which didn't work before. The files download, but will not play; Media Player says, "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file."

The whole issue, as first posted, remains the same. It seemed logical that the issue was a MIME type issue. Unless I'm missing something in the header section, I have no idea why else these files won't work. I've only tried this download process with these four files; my feeling was, if I can't get these four to work properly, there's no point in going any further...

Any bright ideas, anyone? Frustrated hardly covers it.