PHP-Download doesn't work properly

Question

I want to dowload as a web-client a photo from my webserver with PHP.

Therefore, I've written the following PHP-Script:

header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: image/jpg');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.$filename);
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filename));

readfile("/var/www/_old/pictures/".$filename);

($filename is the name of the file, like screenshot_03.06.2016-19:36:50.jpg)

The problem is, the content of this downloaded image is not the image itself, it's the code from the current website. The download works fine, but I cannot open the image properly ...

Possible duplicate of [PHP code is not being executed, instead code shows on the page](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5121495/php-code-is-not-being-executed-instead-code-shows-on-the-page) — Mike, Jun 03 '16 at 17:48
What? No! I think you missunderstood something. The PHP-Code IS executed, but in the downloaded image file, there is the code of my webpage. (plus many cryptic characters, maybe the image content) — Michael Gierer, Jun 03 '16 at 20:18
Well nothing in the code you have above would echo anything except the contents of the file. It must be somewhere else. Also make sure you [get PHP to display errors](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1053424/how-do-i-get-php-errors-to-display). — Mike, Jun 03 '16 at 20:58

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 05 '16 at 09:27

OK.

After some time, I found a working solution.

My problem was, that I wrote the header-commands AFTER some output. According to the php documentation, this is forbidden.

So all I did is this, I created a new .php-file and checked if the session (in which I previously stored the needed information - filename and download-command) was set correct. On the previous page, I received the POST-information, stored it into the session and redirected (also with header-command) to the newly created php-file.

Then I wrote these header-commands:

    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($filename).'"');

    readfile($filename);

And now, the download works from all browsers (also IE!).

Here is all my code, I hope this could help someone:

1st page (where I receive the POST-infos):

session_start();

...
...

if(isset($_POST["galerie_submitBt"])){

    if($_POST["galerie_submitBt"] === "Herunterladen") {            //Das Herunterladen muss in einer eigenen Datei passieren, bevor jeglichen Outputs

        $_SESSION["download_Screenshot"] = true;
        $_SESSION["filename"] = "/var/www/_old/pictures/".$_POST["filename"];

        header("Location:modules/php/download_Screenshot.php");
    }
}

?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
       <title>...

2nd, new created php-page (where I actually download the image):

session_start();

if(isset($_SESSION["download_Screenshot"])){

  if(isset($_SESSION["filename"]) && file_exists($_SESSION["filename"])) {

    $filename = $_SESSION["filename"];          //Filename also includes the path! (absolute path)

    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($filename).'"');

    readfile($filename);

    unset($_SESSION["filename"]);
    unset($_SESSION["download_Screenshot"]);
  }
}

PHP-Download doesn't work properly

1 Answers1