Why Response::download() won't download anything except PDF in Laravel 4? - php

Question

This is the line of code which is giving me sick.
return Response::download(storage_path().'/file/' . $file->id . "." . $file->file->extension);
The files are uploaded and given an id which they are saved under e.g. 25.pdf this works fine if the file is a PDF but doesn't for anything else e.g. PNG. we upgraded from Laravel 3 to 4 to try to overcome this problem.
Any ideas?
EDIT:
I just uploaded a test text file with the word test in it once I uploaded it and then downloaded it I opened it, there were 3 blank lines and the letters te!!!!!I downloaded it through sftp and the file is correctly stored on the server so it is defiantly the download procedure!

Answer 1

I used this function instead of any of the Laravel stuff. :/
(Stolen from other places around the web)
public static function big_download($path, $name = null, array $headers = array()) {
if (is_null($name))
$name = basename($path);
$finfo = finfo_open(FILEINFO_MIME_TYPE);
$pathParts = pathinfo($path);
// Prepare the headers
$headers = array_merge(array(
'Content-Description' => 'File Transfer',
'Content-Type' => finfo_file($finfo, $path),
'Content-Transfer-Encoding' => 'binary',
'Expires' => 0,
'Cache-Control' => 'must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0',
'Pragma' => 'public',
'Content-Length' => File::size($path),
'Content-Disposition' => 'inline; filename="' . $name . '.' . $pathParts['extension'] . '"'
), $headers);
finfo_close($finfo);
$response = new Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response('', 200, $headers);
// If there's a session we should save it now
if (Config::get('session.driver') !== '') {
Session::save();
}
// Below is from http://uk1.php.net/manual/en/function.fpassthru.php comments
session_write_close();
ob_end_clean();
$response->sendHeaders();
if ($file = fopen($path, 'rb')) {
while (!feof($file) and (connection_status() == 0)) {
print(fread($file, 1024 * 8));
flush();
}
fclose($file);
}
// Finish off, like Laravel would
Event::fire('laravel.done', array($response));
$response->foundation->finish();
exit;
}

Answer 2

One may ask, How can i get path to file in laravel?
Path to file can be achieved like:
public function getDownload(){
$file = public_path()."/downloads/info.pdf";
$headers = array('Content-Type: application/pdf',);
return Response::download($file, 'info.pdf',$headers);
}
function will download file from : 'project/public/download' folder.
(don't forget to set-up routes and controller by your self)

Answer 3

Try including the MIME in the return:
$file = storage_path().'/file/' . $file->id . "." . $file->file->extension;
return Response::download($file, 200, array('content-type' => 'image/png'));

Answer 4

If you are using Windows, go to php.ini and then uncomment "extension=php_fileinfo.dll" section and then use this code:
Route::get('file/download', function()
{
$file = public_path(). '\download\myfile.png';
return Response::download($file);
});