PHP Form - download to zip

Question

I have the following form:

<form action="download.php" method="get">
<input type="checkbox" name="file1" /> File1 <br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="file2" /> File2 <br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="file3" /> File3 <br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="file4" /> File4 <br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="file5" /> File5 <br/>

<input type="submit" name="mysubmit" value="Download!">   
</form> 

I cant then GET the ticked value:

<?php echo $_GET["file1"]; ?>

Gives the result: on

However want I want to be able to do is select those options, and each option relates to a PHP file, on Submit each file is combiled into a ZIP

Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

1. You can use isset($_FILES['file1']) to check if file1 is uploaded

2. Loop from file1 to file5

3. Save files from temporary paths to permanent ones

4. Zip them using http://php.net/manual/en/book.zip.php & http://php.net/manual/en/ref.zip.php

5. Optional: Delete the uploaded files (using unlink)

6. Force download the zip file to the browser. See this: http://php.net/manual/en/function.header.php

It's quite simple. Enjoy!

Answer 2

First, add a value field to your form fields and change them to an array:

<form action="download.php" method="get">
<input type="checkbox" name="file[0]" value="1" /> File1 <br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="file[1]" value="1" /> File2 <br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="file[2]" value="1" /> File3 <br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="file[3]" value="1" /> File4 <br/>
<input type="checkbox" name="file[4]" value="1" /> File5 <br/>
<input type="submit" name="mysubmit" value="Download!">   
</form> 

Next, in download.php:

if (!empty($_POST['file'])) {
    // open zip
    $zip_path = '/path/to/created/download.zip';
    $zip = new ZipArchive(); 
    if ($zip->open($zip_path, ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE) !== TRUE) {
        die ("An error occurred creating your ZIP file.");
    }  
    // checkbox values dont matter because only checked boxes show up in POST data
    foreach ($_POST['file'] as $key => $val) {
        // generate filename to add to zip
        $filename = '/path/to/php/file' . $key . '.php';
        $zip->addFile($filename) or die ("ERROR: Could not add the file $filename");  
    }
    $zip->close();

    //===============
    // force download
    //===============
// assume you have a full path to file stored in $zip_path
if (!is_file($zip_path)) {
  die('The file appears to be invalid.');
}

$zip_path = str_replace('\\', '/', realpath($zip_path));
$filesize = filesize($zip_path);
$filename = substr(strrchr('/'.$zip_path, '/'), 1);
$extension = strtolower(substr(strrchr($zip_path, '.'), 1));

// use this unless you want to find the mime type based on extension
$mime = array('application/octet-stream');

header('Content-Type: '.$mime);
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$filename.'"');
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Content-Length: '.sprintf('%d', $filesize));
header('Expires: 0');

// check for IE only headers
if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) && (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'MSIE') !== false))) {
  header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
  header('Pragma: public');
} else {
  header('Pragma: no-cache');
}

$handle = fopen($filepath, 'rb');
fpassthru($handle);
fclose($handle);


} // close $_POST check