PHP Force Download Causing 0 Byte Files

Question

I\'m trying to force download files from my web server using PHP. I\'m not a pro in PHP but I just can\'t seem to get around the problem of files downloading in 0 bytes in s

Answer 1

You're not checking that the file exists. Try using this:

$file = 'monkey.gif';

if (file_exists($file))
{
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($file));
    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    ob_clean();
    flush();
    readfile($file);
    exit;
}else
{
    echo "File does not exists";
}

And see what you get.

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You should also note that this forces a download as an octet stream, a plain binary file. Some browsers will struggle to understand the exact type of the file. If, for example, you send a GIF with a header of Content-Type: application/octet-stream, then the browser may not treat it like a GIF image. You should add in specific checks to determine what the content type of the file is, and send an appropriate Content-Type header.