Codeigniter Force download files - php

Question

By going through the Codeigniter documentation, I am using the following code to force download files from my server.
function download($file_id){
$file = $this->uploadmodel->getById($file_id); //getting all the file details
//for $file_id (all details are stored in DB)
$data = file_get_contents($file->full_path); // Read the file's contents
$name = $file->file_name;;
force_download($name, $data);
}
The code is working file for images, but when it comes with the case of PDF files, it is not working. I have not tested it for all file extensions, but since it is not working for PDF, it might not work for other various file types.
Any solution?

Answer 1

I've had similar problems. I think the problem resides in certain mime's and headers sent to the browser(s). I've end up using the code I found here http://taggedzi.com/articles/display/forcing-downloads-through-codeigniter. Use the function below instead of force_download. It has worked for me so far.
function _push_file($path, $name)
{
// make sure it's a file before doing anything!
if(is_file($path))
{
// required for IE
if(ini_get('zlib.output_compression')) { ini_set('zlib.output_compression', 'Off'); }
// get the file mime type using the file extension
$this->load->helper('file');
$mime = get_mime_by_extension($path);
// Build the headers to push out the file properly.
header('Pragma: public'); // required
header('Expires: 0'); // no cache
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Last-Modified: '.gmdate ('D, d M Y H:i:s', filemtime ($path)).' GMT');
header('Cache-Control: private',false);
header('Content-Type: '.$mime); // Add the mime type from Code igniter.
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($name).'"'); // Add the file name
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Content-Length: '.filesize($path)); // provide file size
header('Connection: close');
readfile($path); // push it out
exit();
}
}
Hope it helps.

Answer 2

It is working for .pdfs also.
Check the path to the file - that might be the problem.
I, too, had that problem, but when I corrected the path to the file, it worked perfectly.
The following is how I wrote the code:
if($src == "xyyx")
{
$pth = file_get_contents(base_url()."path/to/the/file.pdf");
$nme = "sample_file.pdf";
force_download($nme, $pth);
}

Answer 3

Try this, I think its best practice for that problem.
function download($file_id)
{
$this->load->helper('file'); // Load file helper
$file = $this->uploadmodel->getById($file_id); //Get file by id
$data = read_file($file->full_path); // Use file helper to read the file's
$name = $file->file_name;;
force_download($name, $data);
}