PHP downloaded file starts with 7 indentaions - php

I have this really simple PHP-Code which I broke down to the very basics.
header('Content-Type: text/calendar; charset=utf-8');
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=myfile.ics");
echo "AAA";
This should in theory download a file which contains nothing but "AAA" but as soon as I open the file, it will contain exactly 7 indentaions before the three "A"
This seems to create problems when working with certain services reading ICS so I need to remove that. I have no clue where to start. If I don't download the file but open it in the browser, there will be no indentaion.
Where do these come from?
Thank you for your help

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Readfile is best solution to download external files?

I need to get a remote file and give it to user without saving it to my server disk (for hiding original URL) and found a lot of posts about download external files with various functions like file_get_contents or readfile. Already I'm using this one:
function startDownload($url){
if($this->url_exists($url))
{
//get filename from url
$name=$this->getFileName($url);
//first flush clear almost output
ob_end_flush();
//final clear
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//set headers
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary");
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readfile($url);
//exit command is important
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}
else JFactory::getApplication()->enqueueMessage(JText::_('URL_NOT_FOUND'), 'error');
}
And that's working but there is a problem! For a file with 200 MB size it takes ~ 10 seconds to start download in client browser. I think it's because readfile first downloads whole file to my server buffer and then give it to user. Is that right?
And is it possible to make it faster? for example download be started before fetch ended or it isn't possible technically?
In fact I don't know that this method is optimised or not. Any technical advice would be appreciated.
Note :
I know that this function should be changed for big files and that's not my concern now.
I consider to buy the external server in the same datacenter to make this download faster.
Target is that [File server] be separate than the file [online shop].
I tested curl method that mentioned by #LawrenceCherone. It worked nicely but when moved it to my project the result was the same as readfile (white screen for a few seconds).
So suspect to readfile() function. Separate my previous code to a single PHP file and result was amazing! Download starts immediately.
So I think my guess wasn't right and problem was not related to readfile function.
After a little search found a minor modification. I added below line :
while (ob_get_level()) ob_end_clean();
before the :
readfile($url);
And now download starts before whole file fetched in my server.

Problem with HTTP-Header „Content-Disposition: attachment“ with PHP

With this little function I want to create a txt-file and command the browser to start the download.
The god news is, it works on my XAMPP. The bad news is, it doesen‘t work on my webserver. Instead of starting the Download, the file is displayed on the browser. What did I wrong?
public function sendAsFile() {
while (false !== ob_get_clean()) { };
header('Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="export.txt"');
echo $this->getString();
}
This question How to Automatically Start a Download in PHP? doesn't fixed my problem. That only works with a File on the Server, but i dont want to store every created file on my webspace. I want to create and download it immediately. I'm wondering cause it works on XAMPP but not in the WWW.

Echo out php code from file without actually executing it

We are trying to create a webpage in laravel where people are going to be able upload their codefiles to our server, so that other users can watch the code and download it in codefiles if they like it. We however can't figure out the best way to make this happen.
I tried to just let php get a file and echo out the content. this worked well fot html and css, but with php nothing got displayed what so ever. someone mentioned using eval(), however i've read that it is a really bad idea to do so. Another idea would be to stash the code in a database and fetch it from there, which we have tried before, but it sort of over complicated, and avoiding to do so would be prefereable, and instead go directly to i file.
So my question is, do anybody have an idea that might work safely, both for us and our server and for the users.
Something like this:
<?php
// read Codefile
$TheCode = file_get_contents($codefile);
// Print it...
echo htmlentities($TheCode);
?>
Save the php code in a flat file like one with a .dat extension.
then read the file.
$toechp = file(static.dat);
echo $toecho;
You can allow .dat files to be downloaded on browser using headers.
<?php
$file = "http://example.com/static.dat";
header("Content-Description: File Transfer");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$file\"");
readfile ($file);
?>
and you are done.

Using php to force download a pdf

Im trying to get a website to have a button that forces a download of a pdf.
Heres the html of the button:
<a href=scripts/download.php>
<input type="image" src="images/download.gif" alt="Submit button"/>
</a>
And the php script so far:
<?php
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-disposition: attachment;filename=documents/ECM_IT_ResumeDownload.pdf');
readfile('documents/ECM_IT_ResumeDownload.pdf');
?>
This seems to download the file fine but when I go to open it i get this error:
"Adobe Reader could not open 'documents_ECM_IT_ResumeDownload.pdf' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded)."
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT
Opened the pdf in a text editor and got this message:
"
Warning: readfile(documents/ECM_IT_ResumeDownload.pdf) [function.readfile]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in html/scripts/download.php on line 4
"
The document is definitely there though. in html/documents/ECM_IT_ResumeDownload.pdf
$file_url = www.example.com/pdffolder/$pdfname;
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary");
header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename=".$pdfname);
readfile($file_url);
Try removing the path to the file and just leave the file name in the content:
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename=ECM_IT_ResumeDownload.pdf');
Have you tried getting rid of the closing PHP tag (the ?>) at the end? It will treat the page as a pure PHP page, removing any possible new lines that might accidentally get appended to the end of the output. This helped me when I was dynamically creating excel files for download, and they were downloading as corrupted. Check out this page for more information:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.phptags.php
From your edited question, it seems like PHP is unable to find the file. Try using an absolute path to the file like so: "c:\blah\de\blah\bloo.pdf" or "c:/blah/de/blah/bloo.pdf". If one of those paths works and downloads correctly, your relative path is incorrect in some way.
I always use Gowon Patterson's download script, it also has hotlink protection:
http://by.gowondesigns.com/getfile/
By the way, a bit late, but to identify the problem properly here:
Your download script is at scripts/download.php and the file you want to download is at documents/[...].pdf.
Therefore, your readfile() function should be traversing to the parent directory (outside of scripts/), e.g. readfile('../documents/[...].pdf');.

How to start file download instantly using php headers

well I'm just wondering how I can get an mp3 download to start instantly, as oppose to it simply starting to play in the browser when you directly go to it.
Preferably using php headers.
So essentially when you click the file, I want a download box to appear saving save etc. Right now it just opens and starts playing in the browser.
Thanks
You'll need to create a PHP file that "redirects" to the MP3 file, and point your links to that PHP file.
Code as below:
<?php
header('Content-type: audio/mpeg');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="fileName.mp3"');
readfile('originalFile.mp3');
?>
Note: The line that sets the Content-Disposition header is the critical one.

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