Php for download file from server

The first argument is mandatory, and the other two arguments are optional. This function returns the number of bytes read from the file mentioned in the first argument. The uses of this function are shown in the following two examples. In this example, we will create an HTML file with the following code, where the file name will be passed as a parameter of the URL named path , and the value of this parameter will be passed to the PHP file named download.

We will create the PHP file with the following code to download the file forcibly. Next, the header function is used to set the necessary header information before using the readfile function. The basename function is used to retrieve the filename, and the filesize function is used to read the size of the file in bytes, which will be shown in the opening dialog box to download the file. The flush function is used to clear the output buffer.

The readfile function is used with the filename only, here. Output The following output will appear after clicking the download link of the image file. Using the normal anchor link with file path is publicly open and the file path can be found easily. But if we force download a file using PHP, then the file path will be hidden.

So, for security reason sometimes PHP for download is necessary. But in those cases where there is no problem to let users know the file path, then it is okay to use the simple anchor link to let people download the file with that link. Clicking a link that points to a PDF or an Image file will not cause it to download to your hard drive directly. It will only open the file in your browser.

Further you can save it to your hard drive. However, zip and exe files are downloaded automatically to the hard drive by default.

You can force images or other kind of files to download directly to the user's hard drive using the PHP readfile function. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. The Overflow Blog.

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