Cannot display word doc in browser

[raydona]

Hi,

  I’ve uploaded Microsoft Word docs to a MySql database and stored them as binary files. But when I download a file and try to display it in a browser (Firefox or IE) illegible characters are displayed. It seems that a file needs to be transformed back to a Word doc for it to be displayed correctly. Here is the PHP code for downloading a file:

<?php

  $con = mysql_connect("hostserver",“user","pswd");

  if(!$con)

  { die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

  }

  mysql_select_db("database", $con);

 

  $sql = "SELECT name, type, size, content FROM CVs ".

                  "WHERE id = 3";

  $res = mysql_query($sql) or die('Error, query failed');

 

  list($name, $type, $size, $content) = mysql_fetch_array($res);

  header("Content-length: $size");

  header("Content-type: $type");

  header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$name");

  echo $content;

  mysql_close($con);

  exit;

?>

I wonder if anyone has any suggestions as to how to rectify the problem. I am completely lost as to what to do next. I would be very grateful for all help.

 

[ToonMariner]

why are you storing that in a database?

 

the overhead with storing files in a database is pretty big so rarely I'd do anything like that.

 

if its a case of storing the file securely maybe look at storing it behind the site root and forcing download rather than displaying in browser...