HTTP Headers for File Downloads

Question

I ve written a PHP script that handles file downloads  determining which file is being requested and setting the proper HTTP headers to trigger the browser to actually download the file  rather than displaying it in the browser    I now have a problem where some users have reported certain files being identified incorrectly  so regardless of extension  the browser will consider it a GIF image   I m guessing this is because I haven t set the  Content-type  in the response header  Is this most likely the case  If so  is there a fairly generic type that could be used for all files  rather than trying to account for every possible file type   Currently I m only setting the value  Content-disposition  attachment  filename arandomf ile   Update  I followed this guide here to build a more robust process for file downloads  http   w-shadow com blog 2007 08 12 how-to-force-file-download-with-php    but there is a significant delay between when the script is executed and when the browser s download dialog appears  Can anyone identify the bottleneck that is causing this   Here s my implementation          Outputs the specified file to the browser         param string  filePath the path to the file to output     param string  fileName the name of the file     param string  mimeType the type of file     function outputFile  filePath   fileName   mimeType                Setup      mimeTypes   array           pdf    gt   application pdf            txt    gt   text plain            html    gt   text html            exe    gt   application octet-stream            zip    gt   application zip            doc    gt   application msword            xls    gt   application vnd ms-excel            ppt    gt   application vnd ms-powerpoint            gif    gt   image gif            png    gt   image png            jpeg    gt   image jpg            jpg    gt   image jpg            php    gt   text plain               fileSize   filesize  filePath        fileName   rawurldecode  fileName        fileExt               Determine MIME Type     if  mimeType                   fileExt   strtolower substr strrchr  filePath        1             if array key exists  fileExt   mimeTypes                  mimeType    mimeTypes  fileExt                     else                mimeType    application force-download                           Disable Output Buffering      ob end clean            IE Required     if ini get  zlib output compression              ini set  zlib output compression    Off                  Send Headers     header  Content-Type       mimeType       header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename       fileName             header  Content-Transfer-Encoding  binary        header  Accept-Ranges  bytes            Send Headers  Prevent Caching of File     header  Cache-Control  private        header  Pragma  private        header  Expires  Mon  26 Jul 1997 05 00 00 GMT            Multipart-Download and Download Resuming Support     if isset   SERVER  HTTP RANGE               list  a   range    explode        SERVER  HTTP RANGE    2           list  range    explode       range  2           list  range   rangeEnd    explode  -    range             range   intval  range            if   rangeEnd                 rangeEnd    fileSize - 1                    else                rangeEnd   intval  rangeEnd                       newLength    rangeEnd -  range   1              Send Headers         header  HTTP 1 1 206 Partial Content            header  Content-Length       newLength           header  Content-Range  bytes      range -  rangeEnd    size             else            newLength    size          header  Content-Length       size                 Output File      chunkSize   1    1024 1024        bytesSend   0       if  file   fopen  filePath   r              if isset   SERVER  HTTP RANGE                   fseek  file   range                while  feof  file   amp  amp   connection aborted    amp  amp   bytesSend  lt   newLength                     buffer   fread  file   chunkSize                   echo  buffer                  flush                     bytesSend    strlen  buffer                              fclose  file

User · Accepted Answer

Acoording to RFC 2046  Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions       The recommended action for an   implementation that receives an    application octet-stream  entity is   to simply offer to put the data    in   a file   So I d go for that one

User · Answer

You can try this force-download script  Even if you don t use it  it ll probably point you in the right direction    lt  php   filename     GET  file        required for IE  otherwise Content-disposition is ignored if ini get  zlib output compression      ini set  zlib output compression    Off        addition by Jorg Weske  file extension   strtolower substr strrchr  filename      1     if   filename              echo   lt html gt  lt title gt eLouai s Download Script lt  title gt  lt body gt ERROR  download file NOT SPECIFIED  USE force-download php file filepath lt  body gt  lt  html gt      exit    elseif     file exists   filename          echo   lt html gt  lt title gt eLouai s Download Script lt  title gt  lt body gt ERROR  File not found  USE force-download php file filepath lt  body gt  lt  html gt      exit     switch   file extension       case  pdf    ctype  application pdf   break    case  exe    ctype  application octet-stream   break    case  zip    ctype  application zip   break    case  doc    ctype  application msword   break    case  xls    ctype  application vnd ms-excel   break    case  ppt    ctype  application vnd ms-powerpoint   break    case  gif    ctype  image gif   break    case  png    ctype  image png   break    case  jpeg     case  jpg    ctype  image jpg   break    default   ctype  application octet-stream     header  Pragma  public       required header  Expires  0    header  Cache-Control  must-revalidate  post-check 0  pre-check 0    header  Cache-Control  private  false      required for certain browsers  header  Content-Type   ctype       change  added quotes to allow spaces in filenames  by Rajkumar Singh header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     basename  filename           header  Content-Transfer-Encoding  binary    header  Content-Length    filesize  filename    readfile   filename    exit

User · Answer

You can try this force-download script  Even if you don t use it  it ll probably point you in the right direction    lt  php   filename     GET  file        required for IE  otherwise Content-disposition is ignored if ini get  zlib output compression      ini set  zlib output compression    Off        addition by Jorg Weske  file extension   strtolower substr strrchr  filename      1     if   filename              echo   lt html gt  lt title gt eLouai s Download Script lt  title gt  lt body gt ERROR  download file NOT SPECIFIED  USE force-download php file filepath lt  body gt  lt  html gt      exit    elseif     file exists   filename          echo   lt html gt  lt title gt eLouai s Download Script lt  title gt  lt body gt ERROR  File not found  USE force-download php file filepath lt  body gt  lt  html gt      exit     switch   file extension       case  pdf    ctype  application pdf   break    case  exe    ctype  application octet-stream   break    case  zip    ctype  application zip   break    case  doc    ctype  application msword   break    case  xls    ctype  application vnd ms-excel   break    case  ppt    ctype  application vnd ms-powerpoint   break    case  gif    ctype  image gif   break    case  png    ctype  image png   break    case  jpeg     case  jpg    ctype  image jpg   break    default   ctype  application octet-stream     header  Pragma  public       required header  Expires  0    header  Cache-Control  must-revalidate  post-check 0  pre-check 0    header  Cache-Control  private  false      required for certain browsers  header  Content-Type   ctype       change  added quotes to allow spaces in filenames  by Rajkumar Singh header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     basename  filename           header  Content-Transfer-Encoding  binary    header  Content-Length    filesize  filename    readfile   filename    exit

User · Answer

You can try this force-download script  Even if you don t use it  it ll probably point you in the right direction    lt  php   filename     GET  file        required for IE  otherwise Content-disposition is ignored if ini get  zlib output compression      ini set  zlib output compression    Off        addition by Jorg Weske  file extension   strtolower substr strrchr  filename      1     if   filename              echo   lt html gt  lt title gt eLouai s Download Script lt  title gt  lt body gt ERROR  download file NOT SPECIFIED  USE force-download php file filepath lt  body gt  lt  html gt      exit    elseif     file exists   filename          echo   lt html gt  lt title gt eLouai s Download Script lt  title gt  lt body gt ERROR  File not found  USE force-download php file filepath lt  body gt  lt  html gt      exit     switch   file extension       case  pdf    ctype  application pdf   break    case  exe    ctype  application octet-stream   break    case  zip    ctype  application zip   break    case  doc    ctype  application msword   break    case  xls    ctype  application vnd ms-excel   break    case  ppt    ctype  application vnd ms-powerpoint   break    case  gif    ctype  image gif   break    case  png    ctype  image png   break    case  jpeg     case  jpg    ctype  image jpg   break    default   ctype  application octet-stream     header  Pragma  public       required header  Expires  0    header  Cache-Control  must-revalidate  post-check 0  pre-check 0    header  Cache-Control  private  false      required for certain browsers  header  Content-Type   ctype       change  added quotes to allow spaces in filenames  by Rajkumar Singh header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     basename  filename           header  Content-Transfer-Encoding  binary    header  Content-Length    filesize  filename    readfile   filename    exit

User · Answer

As explained by Alex s link you re probably missing the header Content-Disposition on top of Content-Type   So something like this   Content-Disposition  attachment  filename  MyFileName ext

User · Answer

You can try this force-download script  Even if you don t use it  it ll probably point you in the right direction    lt  php   filename     GET  file        required for IE  otherwise Content-disposition is ignored if ini get  zlib output compression      ini set  zlib output compression    Off        addition by Jorg Weske  file extension   strtolower substr strrchr  filename      1     if   filename              echo   lt html gt  lt title gt eLouai s Download Script lt  title gt  lt body gt ERROR  download file NOT SPECIFIED  USE force-download php file filepath lt  body gt  lt  html gt      exit    elseif     file exists   filename          echo   lt html gt  lt title gt eLouai s Download Script lt  title gt  lt body gt ERROR  File not found  USE force-download php file filepath lt  body gt  lt  html gt      exit     switch   file extension       case  pdf    ctype  application pdf   break    case  exe    ctype  application octet-stream   break    case  zip    ctype  application zip   break    case  doc    ctype  application msword   break    case  xls    ctype  application vnd ms-excel   break    case  ppt    ctype  application vnd ms-powerpoint   break    case  gif    ctype  image gif   break    case  png    ctype  image png   break    case  jpeg     case  jpg    ctype  image jpg   break    default   ctype  application octet-stream     header  Pragma  public       required header  Expires  0    header  Cache-Control  must-revalidate  post-check 0  pre-check 0    header  Cache-Control  private  false      required for certain browsers  header  Content-Type   ctype       change  added quotes to allow spaces in filenames  by Rajkumar Singh header  Content-Disposition  attachment  filename     basename  filename           header  Content-Transfer-Encoding  binary    header  Content-Length    filesize  filename    readfile   filename    exit

User · Answer

As explained by Alex s link you re probably missing the header Content-Disposition on top of Content-Type   So something like this   Content-Disposition  attachment  filename  MyFileName ext

User · Answer

As explained by Alex s link you re probably missing the header Content-Disposition on top of Content-Type   So something like this   Content-Disposition  attachment  filename  MyFileName ext

User · Answer

As explained by Alex s link you re probably missing the header Content-Disposition on top of Content-Type   So something like this   Content-Disposition  attachment  filename  MyFileName ext

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