[SOLVED] File Download Problems

[mattyb_53]

Hi all. Im writing a web app that requires a file management system. Basically Im giving the users two options, to store to database (mysql 5) or server folder (recommended option).

I have two issues that are doing my head in:

1) When storing to server, upload works correctly. File has unique name I can download from server using Firefox (apache webserver on MacBook pro, with MAMP installed). But, when i install this on a wind 2003 box and IIS6, I get the following error:

 

"Internet Explorer cannot download: http://localhost/view.File.php?file=3"

 

I also noted that when uploading a .doc file to the server, it saved it as application/octet-stream not application/msword. Whats with that? Could be due to ms office not being installed?

 

 

2) Problem number two involves saving to the database. ive changed the mysql max_allowed_packet variable to allow large 16m queries (i doubt it'd ever get that big). Upload is fine and it stores the info, but when I download, all files are corrupted.

 

Ive tried every content-type under the sun and not one combination does the trick. I did a test using the exact code from www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/php-mysql-upload.php and it does the same thing.

 

Has anyone encountered this before?

 

Matt

[MadTechie]

1).. really need to see some code.. but check the force download, here

 

2) your probably sending extra into to the page.. (error message or CSS.. anything can mess it up)

[mattyb_53]

One note, is that the file is downloaded via a new window. eg: <a href="view.File.php?file=3" target="_blank">link</a. So there shouldnt be any problems.

There is no white space before the headers

There is no CSS formatting what so ever.

 

1) Code is very straight forward:

//using mysql functions we get filename, filetype, filesize, filepath, filecontent (mediumblob)

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

header("Content-Length: ".$filesize);

header("Content-Type: ".$filetype);

readfile($filepath);

exit;

 

I have tried also:

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

header("Content-Length: ".$filesize);

header("Content-Type: ".$filetype);

header("Content-Type: application/force-download",false);

readfile($filepath);

exit;

 

Even tried switching the headers around (order wise). No effect.

 

 

2. Code is similar to above, except:

replace readfile with echo $filecontent;

 

It doesnt error out as far as I can tell. MAMP logs show no errors.

 

I will check the IIS logs too.

[MadTechie]

one thing i know cause some problems

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

should be

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

 

i assume you don't have magic quotes on!

 

change

header("Content-Type: application/force-download",false);

to

header("Content-Type: application/force-download");

 

do you have all the latest patches for IIS ?

[mattyb_53]

Thanks for that.

Ill try again later this afternoon. Im behind a stupid firewall and cant get into my server.

 

Will post results soon.

[mattyb_53]

Ok, still stuck here. No dice. Need uber help on this.

I have a file stored at:

/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/pmfexecutive/uploads/27596600_1192660820_bg.jpg

 

And I access it using this code:

 

if(file_exists($con->fetchResult(0,"url"))){
$type = $con->fetchResult(0,"filetype");
$size = $con->fetchResult(0,"filesize");
$name = $con->fetchResult(0,"filename");
$path = $con->fetchResult(0,"url");
$handle =fopen($path,'r');
$data = file_get_contents($path);
fclose($handle);
header("Content-type: $type");
header("Content-length: $size");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$name");
header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); // HTTP/1.1
header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); // Date in the past
echo $data;
exit;
}

 

Now in theory, this should work on any system yes? Well it fails on IE 6, 7, Firefox, Opera and Safari.

 

In Firefox, it simply echoes the URL:

 

http://localhost:8888/view.File.php?uid=5&table=files

 

Which is of course, the URL to the download files script, telling it to check the files table (i have other tables holding files) opened in a new window.

The database holds the file path to the file mentioned above.

 

Ive tried the header() of force-download and no effect.

 

ANY IDEAS!!

[MadTechie]

change to

if(file_exists($con->fetchResult(0,"url"))){
$type = $con->fetchResult(0,"filetype");
$size = $con->fetchResult(0,"filesize");
$name = $con->fetchResult(0,"filename");
$path = $con->fetchResult(0,"url");
#$handle =fopen($path,'r');
$data = file_get_contents($path);
#fclose($handle);
echo "$path, $type, $size, $name";

//header("Content-type: $type");
//header("Content-length: $size");
//header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$name");
//header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); // HTTP/1.1
//header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); // Date in the past
//echo $data;
exit;
}

and post results's (from opening the page directly)

[mattyb_53]

This is what I get as output when I replace my code mate:

http://localhost:8888/view.File.php?uid=5&table=files

Totally strange. It should print out this:

 

/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/uploads/275...bg.jpgimage/jpeg190759bg.jpg

 

Which I get by removing every header and file handle function.

 

I tried to comment out the headers only, and then I had an error of:

unexpected T_STRING in ..

I tracked down the line and this was where the fault was:

//header("Content-Length: $size");
//header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$name"); <--- this is the line number

This is confusing, because (a) the lines are commented out. and (b) they are correct!

 

What THA?

[mattyb_53]

Thought I'd better paste my full view.File.php source in for you:

 

<?php
include("inc.config.php");
// we need to get the information about the file first.
// we can store files in different tables. so it must be specified and ther must be a uid.
$query = "select * from ".$posted['table']." where uid='".$posted['uid']."'";
$dbCon = new DBConnector(); //custom class to get a db connection
$con = $dbCon->getConnection(); 
$result = $con->executeQuery($query);

//if we got a result... 
//get location 'DATABASE' or 'SERVER'	
if($result){
	switch($con->fetchResult(0,"location")){
		case "DATABASE":
			$type = $con->fetchResult(0,"filetype");
			$size = $con->fetchResult(0,"filesize");
			$name = $con->fetchResult(0,"filename");
			$data = $con->fetchResult(0,"content");

			header("Content-type: $type");
		header("Content-length: $size");
		header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$name");
		header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); // HTTP/1.1
		header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); // Date in the past
		echo $data;
 		exit;

		break;
		case "SERVER":
			//read file path from database and spit it out...
			if(file_exists($con->fetchResult(0,"url"))){
				$type = $con->fetchResult(0,"filetype");
				$size = $con->fetchResult(0,"filesize");
				$name = $con->fetchResult(0,"filename");
				$path = $con->fetchResult(0,"url");
				$handle =fopen($path,'r');
				$data = file_get_contents($path);
				fclose($handle);
				header("Content-type: $type");
		             header("Content-length: $size");
		             header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$name");
			header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); // HTTP/1.1
			header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); // Date in the past
		 	echo $data;
 			exit;
			}
			else{
				echo "<p>Could not find the file specified. Check that it exists.</p>";
				echo "<p>File: <i>".$con->fetchResult(0,"url")."<i/></p>";
				exit;
			}
		break;
	}

}


?>

[MadTechie]

just added a debug for the server,

only other thing i could see was

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

<?php
include("inc.config.php");
// we need to get the information about the file first.
// we can store files in different tables. so it must be specified and ther must be a uid.
$query = "select * from ".$posted['table']." where uid='".$posted['uid']."'";
$dbCon = new DBConnector(); //custom class to get a db connection
$con = $dbCon->getConnection(); 
$result = $con->executeQuery($query);

//if we got a result... 
//get location 'DATABASE' or 'SERVER'	
if($result)
{
	switch($con->fetchResult(0,"location")){
		case "DATABASE":
			$type = $con->fetchResult(0,"filetype");
			$size = $con->fetchResult(0,"filesize");
			$name = $con->fetchResult(0,"filename");
			$data = $con->fetchResult(0,"content");
			//Debug
			var_dump($type, $size, $name);
			die;			
			//end Debug
			header("Content-type: $type");
		header("Content-length: $size");
		header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$name\"");
		header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); // HTTP/1.1
		header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); // Date in the past
		echo $data;
 		exit;

		break;
		case "SERVER":
			//read file path from database and spit it out...
			if(file_exists($con->fetchResult(0,"url")))
		 {
				$type = $con->fetchResult(0,"filetype");
				$size = $con->fetchResult(0,"filesize");
				$name = $con->fetchResult(0,"filename");
				$path = $con->fetchResult(0,"url");
				#$handle =fopen($path,'r');
				$data = file_get_contents($path);
				#fclose($handle);
				header("Content-type: $type");
            header("Content-length: $size");
            header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$name\"");
			header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); // HTTP/1.1
			header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); // Date in the past
		 	echo $data;
 			exit;
			}else{
				echo "<p>Could not find the file specified. Check that it exists.</p>";
				echo "<p>File: <i>".$con->fetchResult(0,"url")."<i/></p>";
				exit;
			}
		break;
	}

}


?>

[mattyb_53]

Ok. I tried that.

Heres a doozy for you. I looked at my MAMP php log file, and it has the following:

 

PHP Fatal Error: Call to undefined function header() in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/view.File.php on line 57

 

What the hell? Thats a standard PHP function!

[mattyb_53]

Just a little side note on how this was solved.

I found that there were some strange space characters before the start of the header() function. I deleted them and then it worked correctly.

 

Looks like these 'spaces' were stopping the headers from being sent correctly.