CodeIgniter - error trying to view uploaded pdf files - php

Question

I'm having difficulty trying to view a pdf file outside of the webroot folder.
This is the view file - I'm grabbing the file id from the URL and then querying the db to get all the file info stored from the upload.
$fid = $_GET['fid'];
$query = $this->db->query("SELECT * FROM files WHERE FID = $fid");
$fileinfo = $query->result();
foreach ($fileinfo as $row)
{
$fname = $row->file_name;
$ftype = $row->file_type;
$fpath = $row->file_path;
$full_path = $row->full_path;
$raw_name = $row->raw_name;
$client_name = $row->client_name;
$file_ext = $row->file_ext;
$file_size = $row->file_size;
$is_image = $row->is_image;
$width = $row->image_width;
$height = $row->image_height;
$img_type = $row->image_type;
$img_size = $row->image_size_str;
$orig_name = $row->orig_name;
$created = $row->created;
}
Then I'm taking that info and passing it to the File_viewer_model using the following:
$this->load->model('File_viewer_model');
$this->File_viewer_model->getFileInfo($fname,$ftype);
The function in the model that receives the data is as follows:
function getFileInfo($fname,$ftype){
$path = '/home/sitename/uploads/' . $fname;
header('Content-Type: ' . $ftype);
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($path));
readfile($path);
}
The problem is when I click on the link to open a new tab and try to display the file, I get the following error:
File does not begin with '%PDF-'.
The file is in a 777 permissions directory called uploads right outside of the webroot - I've been all over the web and there seems to be several methods to display a pdf file, none of which seem to work for me. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Solved: The problem was I was passing a header_view page in the controller before the $this->load->view('file_viewer_view'); section.
The PDF viewer was trying to parse the header_view first before the header('Content-Type: application/pdf') code in the file_viewer_view and thus generating the error.
I removed everything from the controller before the $this->load->view('file_viewer_view'); and it works like a champ!
Hopefully, this will save someone several hours of banging your head against the wall like I experienced!