Any way to force download a remote file?

Question

Im looking to add a "Download this File" function below every video on one of my sites. I need to force the user to download the file, instead of just linking to it, since that begins playing a file in the browser sometimes. The problem is, the video files are stored in a remote server.

Any way I can force the download in php?

Answer 1

You could try something like this:

$file_name = 'file.avi';
$file_url = 'http://www.myremoteserver.com/' . $file_name;
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary"); 
header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$file_name."\""); 
readfile($file_url);
exit;

I just tested it and it works for me.

Please note that for readfile to be able to read a remote url, you need to have your fopen_wrappers enabled.

Answer 2

just some random ideas:

• let your app download the file, zip it and then serve it to the client
• feature your own download manager like a java app or so
• maybe just send the correct headers to disable streaming?

Answer 3

Try this:

<?php
$FileName = '/var/ww/file.txt';
header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename="'.$FileName.'"');
readfile($FileName);

The key is the header(). You need to send the header along with the download and it will force the "Save File" dialog in the user's browser.

Answer 4

<?php
$FileName = '/var/ww/file.txt';
header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename="'.$FileName.'"');
readfile($FileName);

using this code. is it possible to save the file name to what you want. for example you have url: http://remoteserver.com/file.mp3 instead of "file.mp3" can you use this script to download the file as "newname.mp3"