Gzip data to be sent to browser in php - php

Question

I want to Gzip data(css,js) being sent to browser in php . I tried gzcompress, gzencode but both made the file unrecognizable by the browser
Data from firebug for home.css
Date Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:31:59 GMT
Server Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.9
Expires Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:31:59 GMT
Cache-Control public
Pragma no-cache
Etag e35b61f80bbf8e0dd722c50c65ec6da5
Vary Accept-Encoding
Content-Encoding gzip
Content-Length 25163
Keep-Alive timeout=15, max=92
Connection Keep-Alive
Content-Type text/css
EDIT: I even tried below that too didn't work
<?php
if (substr_count($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'], 'gzip'))
ob_start("ob_gzhandler");
else
ob_start();
?>

Answer 1

You need to set the appropriate headers in order for the browser to recognize the file as being compressed.
This really however is a better task for your web server to handle, rather than your code.

Answer 2

try this
<?php
ob_start("ob_gzhandler");
echo file_get_contents("stylesheet.css");
ob_end_flush();
?>
http://php.net/manual/en/function.ob-gzhandler.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ob-end-flush.php
just tested this with apache, if this isnt working for you you messed something up in your apache config.
headers:
Connection:Keep-Alive
Content-Encoding:gzip
Content-Length:180
Content-Type:text/html
Date:Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:11:18 GMT
Keep-Alive:timeout=5, max=99
Server:Apache/2.2.17 (Win32) mod_ssl/2.2.17 OpenSSL/0.9.8o PHP/5.3.4 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1
Vary:Accept-Encoding
X-Powered-By:PHP/5.3.5