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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' => 'application/pdf',
        'txt' => 'text/plain',
        'html' => 'text/html',
        'exe' => 'application/octet-stream',
        'zip' => 'application/zip',
        'doc' => 'application/msword',
        'xls' => 'application/vnd.ms-excel',
        'ppt' => 'application/vnd.ms-powerpoint',
        'gif' => 'image/gif',
        'png' => 'image/png',
        'jpeg' => 'image/jpg',
        'jpg' => 'image/jpg',
        'php' => '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) && !connection_aborted() && $bytesSend < $newLength) {
                $buffer = fread($file, $chunkSize);
                echo $buffer;
                flush();
                $bytesSend += strlen($buffer);
            }

            fclose($file);
        }
    }
}

 Answers

5

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.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022
1

Insert before curl_exec():

curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HEADER,true);

Instead of just echo'ing the result, forward the headers to the client as well:

list($headers,$content) = explode("rnrn",$result,2);
foreach (explode("rn",$headers) as $hdr)
    header($hdr);
echo $content;
Sunday, November 13, 2022
 
brano
 
3

After much playing around with this issue, it turns out that the problem was due to me sending the headers early, and then also returning my response object. Due to this, the headers were being sent twice, which Firefox appears to be perfectly content with, but Chrome becomes very confused and changes the file name to indicate an issue has arisen, but still properly allows the user to download the file.

Basically, I had to remove the line that said $response->sendHeaders(); and simply return the object, thus resolving the issue with double headers, and the file name not formatting properly.

Sunday, October 9, 2022
3

You can find every content type here: http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml

The most common type are:

  1. Type application

    application/java-archive
    application/EDI-X12   
    application/EDIFACT   
    application/javascript   
    application/octet-stream   
    application/ogg   
    application/pdf  
    application/xhtml+xml   
    application/x-shockwave-flash    
    application/json  
    application/ld+json  
    application/xml   
    application/zip  
    application/x-www-form-urlencoded  
    
  2. Type audio

    audio/mpeg   
    audio/x-ms-wma   
    audio/vnd.rn-realaudio   
    audio/x-wav   
    
  3. Type image

    image/gif   
    image/jpeg   
    image/png   
    image/tiff    
    image/vnd.microsoft.icon    
    image/x-icon   
    image/vnd.djvu   
    image/svg+xml    
    
  4. Type multipart

    multipart/mixed    
    multipart/alternative   
    multipart/related (using by MHTML (HTML mail).)  
    multipart/form-data  
    
  5. Type text

    text/css    
    text/csv    
    text/html    
    text/javascript (obsolete)    
    text/plain    
    text/xml    
    
  6. Type video

    video/mpeg    
    video/mp4    
    video/quicktime    
    video/x-ms-wmv    
    video/x-msvideo    
    video/x-flv   
    video/webm   
    
  7. Type vnd :

    application/vnd.android.package-archive
    application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text    
    application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet  
    application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation   
    application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics   
    application/vnd.ms-excel    
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet   
    application/vnd.ms-powerpoint    
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation    
    application/msword   
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document   
    application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml   
    
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
 
bubaker
 
2

Try sending them in chunks along with Transfer-Encoding: chunked. More details in wikipedia.

Update as per the comments, here's an example how a "ChunkedOutputStream" in Java may look like:

package com..q2395192;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;

public class ChunkedOutputStream extends OutputStream {

    private static final byte[] CRLF = "rn".getBytes();
    private OutputStream output = null;

    public ChunkedOutputStream(OutputStream output) {
        this.output = output;
    }

    @Override
    public void write(int i) throws IOException {
        write(new byte[] { (byte) i }, 0, 1);
    }

    @Override
    public void write(byte[] b, int offset, int length) throws IOException {
        writeHeader(length);
        output.write(CRLF, 0, CRLF.length);
        output.write(b, offset, length);
        output.write(CRLF, 0, CRLF.length);
    }

    @Override
    public void flush() throws IOException {
        output.flush();
    }

    @Override
    public void close() throws IOException {
        writeHeader(0);
        output.write(CRLF, 0, CRLF.length);
        output.write(CRLF, 0, CRLF.length);
        output.close();
    }

    private void writeHeader(int length) throws IOException {
        byte[] header = Integer.toHexString(length).getBytes();
        output.write(header, 0, header.length);
    }

}

...which can basically be used as:

OutputStream output = new ChunkedOutputStream(response.getOutputStream());
output.write(....);

You see in the source, every chunk of data exist of a header which represents the length of data in hex, a CRLF, the actual data and a CRLF. The end of the stream is represented by a header denoting a 0 length and two CRLFs.

Note: despite the example, you actually do not need it in a JSP/Servlet based webapplication. Whenever the content length is not set on a response, the webcontainer will automatically transfer them in chunks.

Monday, August 22, 2022
 
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