cURL script will not download images; Instead renders junk - php

Question

I have been using the following function to download pictures from a distributor for use on our website as was described here:
$url = "http://covers.stl-distribution.com/7819/lg-9781936417445.jpg";
$itemnum = 80848;
$path = "www.gullions.com/localstore/test/test.jpg";
header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
$ch = curl_init($url);
$fp = fopen("http://www.gullions.com/localstore/test/test.jpg", 'wb');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fp);
Instead of downloading and saving the picture, it only prints crazy characters to the screen. I know that means that for some reason the browser is trying to render the picture but most likely doesn't recognize the file type. But I can't seem to find the problem. You can see the crazy output by navigating here. To verify that the image wasn't downloaded and saved, you can navigate here. Also, FTP also shows that no file was downloaded. If you navigate to the original picture's download url you'll see that the file we are trying to download does in fact exist.
I have contacted my host and verified that no settings have been changed with the server, that cURL is functioning properly, and have even rolled back my browser to verify that a recent update didn't cause the issue. I created a test file by removing the function from the application and have tried running it separately but have only had the same results.

Answer 1

Add:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
as by default this parameter is false. Docs read:
TRUE to return the transfer as a string of the return value of
curl_exec() instead of outputting it out directly.
EDIT
Setting CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER make curl_exec() return data, so it should be written manually, like this:
$url = "http://covers.stl-distribution.com/7819/lg-9781936417445.jpg";
$ch = curl_init($url);
$fp = fopen("./test.jpg", 'wb');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
fwrite($fp, curl_exec($ch));
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fp);
Also this code, that uses CURLOPT_FILE works for me just fine:
$url = "http://covers.stl-distribution.com/7819/lg-9781936417445.jpg";
$ch = curl_init($url);
$fp = fopen("./test.jpg", 'wb');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fp);
so I basically suspect that your file handle is not valid, therefore cURL falls back to default output. Try this code with elementary error checking (you should ALWAYS check for errors):
$url = "http://covers.stl-distribution.com/7819/lg-9781936417445.jpg";
$fp = fopen("./test.jpg", 'wb');
if( $fp != null ) {
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fp);
} else {
exit('ERROR: Failed to open file');
}
Note that my examples write to the same folder scripts sits in. It must work unless your server got file permissions messed badly. If it works for you, then investigate if (usually) user your scripts runs as can write to your target folder.

Answer 2

You haven't told your browser what type of file to expect, so it's probably defaulting to text/plain.
You need at least:
header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
As well, curl by default outputs whatever it fetches, unless you explicitly tell it you want to have the fetched data returned, or saved directly to file.