How to force file download with PHP

Question

I want to require a file to be downloaded upon the user visiting a web page with PHP. I think it has something to do with file_get_contents, but am not sure how

Answer 1

Display your file first and set its value into url.

index.php

download.php

 "text/html",
        "exe" => "application/octet-stream",
        "zip" => "application/zip",
        "doc" => "application/msword",
        "jpg" => "image/jpg",
        "php" => "text/plain",
        "xls" => "application/vnd.ms-excel",
        "ppt" => "application/vnd.ms-powerpoint",
        "gif" => "image/gif",
        "pdf" => "application/pdf",
        "txt" => "text/plain",
        "html"=> "text/html",
        "png" => "image/png",
        "jpeg"=> "image/jpg"
    );

    if($mime_type==''){
        $file_extension = strtolower(substr(strrchr($file,"."),1));
        if(array_key_exists($file_extension, $known_mime_types)){
            $mime_type=$known_mime_types[$file_extension];
        } else {
            $mime_type="application/force-download";
        };
    };
    @ob_end_clean();
    if(ini_get('zlib.output_compression'))
    ini_set('zlib.output_compression', 'Off');
    header('Content-Type: ' . $mime_type);
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$name.'"');
    header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
    header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');

    if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE']))
    {
        list($a, $range) = explode("=",$_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'],2);
        list($range) = explode(",",$range,2);
        list($range, $range_end) = explode("-", $range);
        $range=intval($range);
        if(!$range_end) {
            $range_end=$size-1;
        } else {
            $range_end=intval($range_end);
        }

        $new_length = $range_end-$range+1;
        header("HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content");
        header("Content-Length: $new_length");
        header("Content-Range: bytes $range-$range_end/$size");
    } else {
        $new_length=$size;
        header("Content-Length: ".$size);
    }

    $chunksize = 1*(1024*1024);
    $bytes_send = 0;
    if ($file = fopen($file, 'r'))
    {
        if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE']))
        fseek($file, $range);

        while(!feof($file) &&
            (!connection_aborted()) &&
            ($bytes_send<$new_length)
        )
        {
            $buffer = fread($file, $chunksize);
            echo($buffer);
            flush();
            $bytes_send += strlen($buffer);
        }
        fclose($file);
    } else
        die('Error - can not open file.');
    die();
}
set_time_limit(0);

/*set your folder*/
$file_path='uploads/'."your file";

/*output must be folder/yourfile*/

output_file($file_path, ''."your file".'', $row['type']);

/*back to index.php while downloading*/
header('Location:index.php');
?>