Issues when downloading file from Slim Framework - php

Question

I want to download file through Slim Framework (The reason why I'm using Slim Framework is because I want to write a simple REST API). I found this post:
Download file from Slim Framework 2.4 and this post: http://help.slimframework.com/discussions/questions/359-file-download. I followed the method. Here is my code:
$app->get('/download/:id', 'authenticate', function($id) use ($app)
{
$log = '../download/'.$id.'/myfile.zip';
$res = $app->response()->headers();
$res['Content-Description'] = 'File Transfer';
$res['Content-Type'] = 'application/octet-stream';
$res['Content-Disposition'] ='attachment; filename=' . basename($log);
$res['Content-Transfer-Encoding'] = 'binary';
$res['Expires'] = '0';
$res['Cache-Control'] = 'must-revalidate';
$res['Pragma'] = 'public';
$res['Content-Length'] = filesize($log);
readfile($log);
// NOTE:
// $response = array();
// $response["error"] = false;
// echoRespnse(200, $response);
});
I'm using the Google Chrome's Advanced Rest Client application to test. The problem is the browser hung after the file downloaded.If I comments out the NOTE part in my source code, the browser won't hang again. But I got a "Unexpected token P" error.
Can anybody help? Thanks.

Answer 1

Try the solution here: PHP readfile() adding extra bytes to downloaded file.
You lack the calls to ob_clean, flush and exit.
The problem might be becasue of extra characters output with the rest of the file contents.

Answer 2

For Slim 3, I had a bit of struggle.
I struggled with this in Slim 3.0.
I was trying something like the following and the pdf binary was getting displayed on the screen.
$header['Content-Description'] = 'File Transfer';
$header['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename="' .basename("$file") . '"';
// ...
$response = $response->withHeader($header);
In order to make it work, you need to set the key/value pairs using $response->withHeader(). And it works like a charm. For example:
$response = $response->withHeader('Content-Type', 'application/pdf');
$response = $response->withHeader('Content-Description', 'File Transfer');
$response = $response->withHeader('Content-Disposition', 'attachment; filename="' .basename("$file") . '"');
$response = $response->withHeader('Content-Transfer-Encoding', 'binary');
$response = $response->withHeader('Expires', '0');
$response = $response->withHeader('Cache-Control', 'must-revalidate');
$response = $response->withHeader('Pragma', 'public');
$response = $response->withHeader('Content-Length', filesize($file));

Answer 3

maybe it's a little late but you can use this package for slim http file response :
https://github.com/mhndev/slim-file-response

Answer 4

Is the solution above working for you? Here's my code, which just outputs obscure characters directly into the browser window:
$app->get('/file/:fileid', function($fileid) use ($app)
{
$zip = new ZipArchive();
$zipname = "zipfile3.zip"; // Zip name
$zip->open($zipname, ZipArchive::CREATE);
$files = array ( "sprecher_inserts_en_VB.doc" );
foreach ($files as $file) {
$path = "uploads/".$file;
if(file_exists($path)){
$zip->addFromString(basename($path), file_get_contents($path));
}
else{
echo"file does not exist";
}
}
$zip->close();
// after that, the zip file is on the server and valid when downloaded manually (e.g. by entering its URL directly)
$res = $app->response()->headers();
$res['Content-Description'] = 'File Transfer';
$res['Content-Type'] = 'application/octet-stream';
$res['Content-Disposition'] ='attachment; filename=' . basename($zipname);
$res['Content-Transfer-Encoding'] = 'binary';
$res['Expires'] = '0';
$res['Cache-Control'] = 'must-revalidate';
$res['Pragma'] = 'public';
$res['Content-Length'] = filesize($zipname);
ob_clean();
flush();
readfile($zipname);
exit();
});
The output in the browser window is the following, no dialog for downloading the file is loaded whatsoever: