Error in Downloading the text file

[jyaseen]

I used the follwing code to download the text file from my server location.

my php file to read the following code name is contacts.php
it is downloading the text file but , this text file includes the script of contacts.php too

$select_group = $_REQUEST[select_group];
/*echo "file name ".    $select_file = $_FILES['frm_file']['name'];*/
    if($select_group == 1){
        $qry_contacts = "select eml_id from tbl_contacts  ";
    }else{
        $qry_contacts = "select eml_id from tbl_contacts where ctc_grp_name = '$select_group'";
    }
    $res_contacts = mysql_query($qry_contacts);
    $ctr_contacts = mysql_num_rows($res_contacts);
    $write_to_file ="";
    for($i=0;$i<$ctr_contacts;$i++){
            if($write_to_file ==""){
                    $write_to_file = mysql_result($res_contacts,$i,eml_id);
            }else{
                    $write_to_file .= ",".mysql_result($res_contacts,$i,eml_id);
            }
    }     
//    if($select_file ==""){
        $outputfile = "/location of file/output.txt";
//    }else{
    //    $outputfile = $select_file;    
    //}
    if(!is_writable($outputfile)) {        
        $file_message_flag = true;
        $file_message = "Error in permissions";
    }else{
        $file2 = fopen($outputfile,"w");    
        if(!$file2){            
            $file_message_flag = true;
            $file_message = "Error writing to the output file.\n";            
        }else {
            fwrite($file2,$write_to_file);
            fclose($file2);
            //$file_message_flag = true;
            //$file_message = "E-mail ids Successfully Imported..";
 
 
        }
    }
 
 
 
 
include("../include/global.php");
$file_value = "output.txt";
 
define('ALLOWED_REFERRER', '');
 
// Download folder, i.e. folder where you keep all files for download.
// MUST end with slash (i.e. "/" )
define('BASE_DIR','location to the directory');
 
// log downloads?  true/false
define('LOG_DOWNLOADS',true);
 
// log file name
define('LOG_FILE','downloads.log');
 
// Allowed extensions list in format 'extension' => 'mime type'
// If myme type is set to empty string then script will try to detect mime type 
// itself, which would only work if you have Mimetype or Fileinfo extensions
// installed on server.
$allowed_ext = array (
 
  // archives
  'zip' => 'application/zip',
 
  // documents
  'txt' => 'application/txt',
  'pdf' => 'application/pdf',
  'doc' => 'application/msword',
  'xls' => 'application/vnd.ms-excel',
  'ppt' => 'application/vnd.ms-powerpoint',
 
  // executables
  'exe' => 'application/octet-stream',
 
  // images
  'gif' => 'image/gif',
  'png' => 'image/png',
  'jpg' => 'image/jpeg',
  'jpeg' => 'image/jpeg',
 
  // audio
  'mp3' => 'audio/mpeg',
  'wav' => 'audio/x-wav',
 
  // video
  'mpeg' => 'video/mpeg',
  'mpg' => 'video/mpeg',
  'mpe' => 'video/mpeg',
  'mov' => 'video/quicktime',
  'avi' => 'video/x-msvideo'
);
 
 
 
####################################################################
###  DO NOT CHANGE BELOW
####################################################################
 
// If hotlinking not allowed then make hackers think there are some server problems
if (ALLOWED_REFERRER !== ''
&& (!isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']) || strpos(strtoupper($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']),strtoupper(ALLOWED_REFERRER)) === false)
) {
  die("Internal server error. Please contact system administrator.");
}
 
// Make sure program execution doesn't time out
// Set maximum script execution time in seconds (0 means no limit)
set_time_limit(0);
 
if (!isset($file_value) || empty($file_value)) {
  die("Please specify file name for download.");
}
 
// Get real file name.
// Remove any path info to avoid hacking by adding relative path, etc.
$fname = basename($file_value);
 
// Check if the file exists
// Check in subfolders too
function find_file ($dirname, $fname, &$file_path) {
 
  $dir = opendir($dirname);
 
  while ($file = readdir($dir)) {
    if (empty($file_path) && $file != '.' && $file != '..') {
      if (is_dir($dirname.'/'.$file)) {
        find_file($dirname.'/'.$file, $fname, $file_path);
      }
      else {
        if (file_exists($dirname.'/'.$fname)) {
          $file_path = $dirname.'/'.$fname;
          return;
        }
      }
    }
  }
 
} // find_file
 
// get full file path (including subfolders)
$file_path = '';
find_file(BASE_DIR, $fname, $file_path);
 
if (!is_file($file_path)) {
  die("File does not exist. Make sure you specified correct file name."); 
}
 
// file size in bytes
$fsize = filesize($file_path); 
 
// file extension
$fext = strtolower(substr(strrchr($fname,"."),1));
 
// check if allowed extension
if (!array_key_exists($fext, $allowed_ext)) {
  die("Not allowed file type."); 
}
 
// get mime type
if ($allowed_ext[$fext] == '') {
  $mtype = '';
  // mime type is not set, get from server settings
  if (function_exists('mime_content_type')) {
    $mtype = mime_content_type($file_path);
  }
  else if (function_exists('finfo_file')) {
    $finfo = finfo_open(FILEINFO_MIME); // return mime type
    $mtype = finfo_file($finfo, $file_path);
    finfo_close($finfo);  
  }
  if ($mtype == '') {
    $mtype = "application/force-download";
  }
}
else {
  // get mime type defined by admin
  $mtype = $allowed_ext[$fext];
}
 
// Browser will try to save file with this filename, regardless original filename.
// You can override it if needed.
 
if (!isset($_GET['fc']) || empty($_GET['fc'])) {
  $asfname = $fname;
}
else {
  // remove some bad chars
  $asfname = str_replace(array('"',"'",'\\','/'), '', $_GET['fc']);
  if ($asfname === '') $asfname = 'NoName';
}
 
// set headers
header("Pragma: public");
header("Expires: 0");
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
header("Cache-Control: public");
header("Content-Description: File Transfer");
header("Content-Type: $mtype");
//header("Content-Type: application/txt");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$asfname\"");
//header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"".basename($filename)."\";" );
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
header("Content-Length: " . $fsize);
 
 
 
//header("Content-Length: " .filesize($filename));
//readfile(basename($filename));
// download
// @readfile($file_path);
$file = @fopen($file_path,"rb");
if ($file) {
  while(!feof($file)) {
    print(fread($file, 1024*8));
    flush();
    if (connection_status()!=0) {
      @fclose($file);
      die();
    }
  }
  @fclose($file);
}
 
// log downloads
if (!LOG_DOWNLOADS) die();
 
$f = @fopen(LOG_FILE, 'a+');
if ($f) {
  @fputs($f, date("m.d.Y g:ia")."  ".$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']."  ".$fname."\n");
  @fclose($f);
}
 

I attached the output text file with this

[Atli]

Hey.

I don't see a reference to that file anywhere in this code. How exactly are they related?

I attached the output text file with this

No you didn't :)

[jyaseen]

@Atli
Can you help me how to attach a text file with this

[jyaseen]

Below is the output of my text file - output.txt

[e-mail] m,user2@example .com
I expect only above email ids, but below script also it displays...

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html 
 
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Contacts</title>
<link 
 
href="../css/css_rahma.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="assets/style.css" type="text/css" media="all"  />
<script 
 
language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
    function ajaxFunction(){ 
        var ajaxRequest;
        try{
            ajaxRequest = 
 
new XMLHttpRequest();    
        }catch(e){
            try{
                ajaxRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");    
 
 
            }catch(e){
                try{
                    ajaxRequest = new 
 
ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");    
                }catch(e){.................
.......................

[Atli]

You aren't wrapping the download script in HTML, are you?

Anything that is in the page that sends the text file is sent, not just the file itself. To put it differently; the PHP script doesn't send the text file, it is the text file. Anything that is inside it, or is included inside it, will be included in the file you receive.

[jyaseen]

@Atli
can you give a detailed replay , I don't understand what you mean by 'wrapping the download script in HTML'

[Atli]

<?php
    header('content-type: text/plain');
?>
<html>
    <head><title>This is HTML!</title></head>
    <body>
<?php
    passthru('mytextfile.txt'); 
?>
    </body>
</html>

This is PHP code wrapped in HTML. This would appear as a text-file, but include the HTML. - If you wanted only to get the text from the file, you would need to get rid of the HTML

<?php
    header('content-type: text/plain');
    passthru('mytextfile.txt'); 
?>

[jyaseen]

below is the code executing while pressing the button 'btn_export'
output of this script should be - only the selected email ids to download to text file output.txt
can you please check any mistake in this code.?

if(isset($_REQUEST[btn_export])){  
    $select_group = $_REQUEST[select_group]; // select_group is a list box to select the choice 
    if($select_group == 1){
        $qry_contacts = "select eml_id from tbl_contacts  ";
    }else{
        $qry_contacts = "select eml_id from tbl_contacts where ctc_grp_name = '$select_group'";
    }
    $res_contacts = mysql_query($qry_contacts);
    $ctr_contacts = mysql_num_rows($res_contacts);
    $write_to_file ="";
    for($i=0;$i<$ctr_contacts;$i++){
            if($write_to_file ==""){
                    $write_to_file = mysql_result($res_contacts,$i,eml_id);
            }else{
                    $write_to_file .= ",".mysql_result($res_contacts,$i,eml_id);
            }
    }     
//    if($select_file ==""){
        $outputfile = "/path to text file/output.txt";
//    }else{
    //    $outputfile = $select_file;    
    //}
    if(!is_writable($outputfile)) {        
        $file_message_flag = true;
        $file_message = "Permission error ";
    }else{
        $file2 = fopen($outputfile,"w");    
        if(!$file2){            
            $file_message_flag = true;
            $file_message = "Error writing to the output file.\n";            
        }else {
            fwrite($file2,$write_to_file);
            fclose($file2);
            //$file_message_flag = true;
            //$file_message = "E-mail ids Successfully Imported..";
            $file = '/path to text file/output.txt';
            header('Content-type: text/plain');
            header('Content-Length: '.filesize($file));
            header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.$file);
            //readfile($file);
            passthru($file); 
        }
    }
}

[Atli]

Overall, that code should not output any sort of HTML, only the text file.

There are a couple of things, though, that you may need to fix.

• On lines #38-41 you use a $file variable. I don't see that defined anywhere. Are you sure you don't mean to use the $outputfile variable there?
• When you specify array element names as strings, they should be quoted, just like any other string. (See lines #1 and #2 in your code)
  If they are not, PHP will generate a error notice. (Which will be printed as HTML by default.)
  

  <?php
  // This is WRONG!
  $_REQUEST[something]
   
  // It should be like this:
  $_REQUEST['something']
  ?>

Also, you should check out SQL Injection and the mysql_real_esca pe_string function. - You should never pass user input directly into a SQL query without verifying that it is in fact the data you are expecting. - Failing to do so may cause problems ranging from your query failing due to invalid syntax, to you losing your entire database.