File_get_contents(): failed to open stream: Connection refused - php

Question

I am trying to download a previously uploaded file, form database and uploads folder in php codeigniter. I am using code below but downloading empty file.
controller.php
public function downloadFile($incidents_id)
{
$file = $this->incidents_model->getfile($incidents_id);
//echo $file; die;
$this->load->helper('download');
$path = file_get_contents(base_url()."uploads/".$file); //(the error shows on this line)
// echo $path; die;
$name = $file; // new name for your file
// echo $name ; die;
force_download($name, $path); // start download`
}
incidents_model.php
function getfile($Incident_id )
{
$file = $this->db->select('file');
$this->db->from('incidents');
$this->db->where('incidents_id' , $Incident_id );
$query = $this->db->get();
// return $query->row();
if ($query->num_rows() > 0) {
return $query->row()->file;
}
return false;
}
view.php
<div class="form-group col-md-4">
Download file
</div>
so running this code download an empty file.
echo $file; die; displays the file name which been saved in db and in uploads folder
echo $path; die; generates an error:
Severity: Warning
Message:
file_get_contents(http://localhost:8080/ticketing_tool_v2/uploads/Screenshot
2021-03-04 at 5.59.38 PM.png): failed to open stream: Connection
refused
Filename: admin/Incidents.php
Line Number: 380

Answer 1

Reviewing the documentation for file_get_contents you'll observe there's many different ways you can use it. For your purposes you would need to allow inbound connections to the filesystem.
The other way you could do this for better future proofing is to use the CodeIgniter file helper - https://codeigniter.com/userguide3/helpers/file_helper.html

Answer 2

Before reading the file from path, please check whether a path points to a valid file.
public function downloadFile($incidents_id) {
try {
$this->load->helper('download');
$file = $this->incidents_model->getfile($incidents_id);
$data = file_get_contents(base_url("uploads/" . $file));
$name = $file; // new name for your file
force_download($name, $data); // start download`
} catch (Exception $e) {
//exception handling code goes here
print_r($e);
}
}