I have got a button from where users can download specific files. Each time I will have to process the name of the file and put it in a variable before giving it to the readfile function to serve it to the user. However, in many cases the file name is quite long and may change over time so there is a potential of errors in the future. So I was wondering whether one can simply pass something like /filedirectory/*.pdf or just specify only part of the name and rest could be anything and then pass it to the readfile to download the pdf which is found there like in the example below?
if(isset($_POST["submit"]))
{
// We'll be outputting a PDF
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
// It will be called downloaded.pdf
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="download.pdf"');
// Whatever name the pdf has
readfile('./filedirectory/*.pdf');
#OR
// File starts with 123..
readfile('./filedirectory/123*.pdf');
}
You can use glob to list all PDF files and then you can select the name that you wish and readfile it.
Example
<?php
foreach (glob("*.pdf") as $filename) {
// Do something with the $filename
}
?>
You may get the list of files within /filedirectory using scandir() (http://php.net/manual/en/function.scandir.php) and find out whatever a file name might be.
Related
I recently had a asked a question very similar to this one, however after evaluating that I did not explain it in the best way I have come back once again explaining it in a greater manner.
So, I am creating a system that will gather data from a MySQL database and use a unique id to download a file, however depending on the value of a column within that database called type, this file could be anything from a png file to an xml file. What I am currently doing is trying to download these files WITHOUT any extension.
As an example to maybe make this easier to understand, a file named image.png would be converted to just image and then downloaded.
With this you could rename the file to image.png again on the local machine and view the image.
This may seem very inefficient to most reading this but for my current situation it's all that will work.
How could I remove a files extension and then download it? (in php)
Thank you in advance.
Just use headers to specify response type.
$filepath = '/wherever/the/file/is.png';
$filename = 'new-cool-name';
header('Content-Type: whatever/content-type-is');
header("Content-disposition: attachment;filename=$filename");
readfile($filepath);
This basically sends a response with specified content-type as an attachment and the body of the attachment contains the file contents. If you never sure what's the content type is, then just use application/octet-stream
Usually when you set out to push a file for downloading from a serverside script, you do so by utilizing http headers like https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Disposition
The filename of the downloadable file is specified in that header
Okay so to remove an extention from a file you could do is
$withoutExtion = preg_replace('/\\.[^.\\s]{3,4}$/', '', $youfilename);
...followed by your file download code
First post. I'm working on a project for a client where they have pdf files uploaded to a file structure (LAMP Stack) but the files have no extensions on them. Under the assumption that those files have to be PDF how would I get the browsers to understand that, and open them accordingly? Obviously with adding the file extensions this would suddenly work but I can't change the way their system works, it would result in too many changes and they are on a tight deadline. As for saving a temporary copy somewhere, I could do that, but I was hoping for a better solution. Is there a way to suggest to the browsers that they open a file a certain way?
Any thoughts guys/gals?
You just set the application type and file name in the headers, like so:
// This points to the file in question, note that it doesn't
// care whether it has an extension on the name or not.
$filePathOnDisk = '/path/to/your/pdffile';
// You can make this whatever you like, it doesn't have to
// be the same as the file name on the disk! This is the name of the file your end
// user will see when they are asked if they want to save. open, etc in the browser.
$fileName = 'file.pdf';
$data = file_get_contents($filePathOnDisk);
header("Content-type: application/pdf");
header("Content-disposition: attachment;filename=$fileName");
echo $data;
See PHP: stream remote pdf to client browser and Proper MIME media type for PDF files for reference as well.
Tested
You can use the following which will prompt the user to save the (PDF) file on their computer.
Notice the different file names.
One is the file that will be uploaded/prompted to the user download_example.pdf, while the other is the file without an extension as set in readfile('example');
<?php
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="download_example.pdf"');
readfile('example');
?>
I have a simple form that, when posted back, calls a function to initiate a download. The path and file name are pulled from the database then I'm using headers to start the download. My code for the download is:
//START DOWNLOAD
header('Content-type: "application/octet-stream"');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$FILE_PATH.$FILE_NAME.'"');
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
header("Connection: close")
In the example above, the $FILE_PATH variable is /downloads/software/ and the $FILE_NAME variable is client-installer.exe. So, what I would expect is a file called client-installer.exe (approximately 70MB) to be downloaded to the client. Instead, I get a file called _downloads_software_client-installer.exe and approximately 10KB.
I thought maybe I needed to urlencode the file path/name but that didn't fix the issue either. So I'm left thinking perhaps I have something wrong with the header but can't seem to find it.
Thank you!
The filename header just denotes what the file should be called. It must contain only a filename, not a path. The internal path on the server's hard disk is irrelevant and of no interest to the client. Your server will have to output the actual file data in the response, the client can't take it from the server given the path.
See readfile.
I have list of images and I want a "Download" link along with every image so that user can download the image.
so can someone guide me How to Provide Download link for any file in php?
EDIT
I want a download panel to be displayed on clicking the download link I dont want to navigate to image to be displayed on the browser
If you want to force a download, you can use something like the following:
<?php
// Fetch the file info.
$filePath = '/path/to/file/on/disk.jpg';
if(file_exists($filePath)) {
$fileName = basename($filePath);
$fileSize = filesize($filePath);
// Output headers.
header("Cache-Control: private");
header("Content-Type: application/stream");
header("Content-Length: ".$fileSize);
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=".$fileName);
// Output file.
readfile ($filePath);
exit();
}
else {
die('The provided file path is not valid.');
}
?>
If you simply link to this script using a normal link the file will be downloaded.
Incidentally, the code snippet above needs to be executed at the start of a page (before any headers or HTML output had occurred.) Also take care if you decide to create a function based around this for downloading arbitrary files - you'll need to ensure that you prevent directory traversal (realpath is handy), only permit downloads from within a defined area, etc. if you're accepting input from a $_GET or $_POST.
In HTML5 download attribute of <a> tag can be used:
echo '<a href="path/to/file" download>Download</a>';
This attribute is only used if the href attribute is set.
There are no restrictions on allowed values, and the browser will
automatically detect the correct file extension and add it to the file
(.img, .pdf, .txt, .html, etc.).
Read more here.
The solution is easier that you think ;) Simple use:
header('Content-Disposition: attachment');
And that's all. Facebook for example does the same.
You can do this in .htaccess and specify for different file extensions. It's sometimes easier to do this than hard-coding into the application.
<FilesMatch "\.(?i:pdf)$">
ForceType application/octet-stream
Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</FilesMatch>
By the way, you might need to clear browser cache before it works correctly.
I want to write a text file in the server through Php, and have the client to download that file.
How would i do that?
Essentially the client should be able to download the file from the server.
This is the best way to do it, supposing you don't want the user to see the real URL of the file.
<?php
$filename="download.txt";
header("Content-disposition: attachment;filename=$filename");
readfile($filename);
?>
Additionally, you could protect your files with mod_access.
In addition to the data already posted, there is a header you might want to try.
Its only a suggestion to how its meant to be handled, and the user agent can chose to ignore it, and simply display the file in the window if it knows how:
<?php
header('Content-Type: text/plain'); # its a text file
header('Content-Disposition: attachment'); # hit to trigger external mechanisms instead of inbuilt
See Rfc2183 for more on the Content-Disposition header.
PHP has a number of very simplistic, C-like functions for writing to files. Here is an easy example:
<?php
// first parameter is the filename
//second parameter is the modifier: r=read, w=write, a=append
$handle = fopen("logs/thisFile.txt", "w");
$myContent = "This is my awesome string!";
// actually write the file contents
fwrite($handle, $myContent);
// close the file pointer
fclose($handle);
?>
It's a very basic example, but you can find more references to this sort of operation here:
PHP fopen
If you set the content type to application/octet-stream, the browser will ALWAYS offer file as a download, and will never attempt to display it internally, no matter what type of file it is.
<?php
filename="download.txt";
header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-disposition: attachment;filename=$filename");
// output file content here
?>
Just post a link on the site to http://example.com/textfile.php
And in that PHP file you put the following code:
<?php
header('Content-Type: text/plain');
print "The output text";
?>
That way you can create the content dynamic (from a database)...
Try to Google to oter "Content-Type" if this one is not the one you are looking for.