Serving Files with PHP

[David T. Ashley]

I've used Apache with the automatic directory indexes ... works great ...
just click on the file name and IE magically figures out how to display it
.... if it is a .PDF then Adobe Acrobat runs, etc.

However, I'd like to "serve" files in a more restrictive context where:

a)The user has to have a valid session identifier in order to get a file.

b)The files I'd be serving aren't in directories that Apache can get to
directly, i.e. not in a "Document Root" or aliased directory (although it
has the right permissions to get the files).

Is it possible to do this with PHP?

Can PHP just spit out the right MIME information and then somehow open and
encode the file and the client will treat it properly?

Are there any PHP functions that help with the encoding?

Are there any good web references?

Thanks

[Chuck Anderson]

David T. Ashley wrote:

I've used Apache with the automatic directory indexes ... works great ...
just click on the file name and IE magically figures out how to display it
... if it is a .PDF then Adobe Acrobat runs, etc.

However, I'd like to "serve" files in a more restrictive context where:

a)The user has to have a valid session identifier in order to get a file.

b)The files I'd be serving aren't in directories that Apache can get to
directly, i.e. not in a "Document Root" or aliased directory (although it
has the right permissions to get the files).

Is it possible to do this with PHP?

Yes.

Can PHP just spit out the right MIME information

Yes.

and then somehow open and encode the file and the client will treat it properly?

If the mime type is right, the client should be able to treat it properly.

Are there any PHP functions that help with the encoding?

No encoding is needed.

You can add headers with header and serve it with readfile or include.

Are there any good web references?

Php.net usually has lots of good notes added by users.

Here's how I serve a pdf file that exists outside of the site home
directory.

$file = 'path to the pdf file';

header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));

// to open in browser
header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename=' . basename($file));

// to download
// header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=' . basename($file));

readfile($file); /* or use include($file); */

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
*****************************

[Pedro Graca]

David T. Ashley wrote:

a)The user has to have a valid session identifier in order to get a file.

Why?
Or, to put it differently, what do you mean "valid session identifier"?
And what good does it do to you when the "user has one"?

b)The files I'd be serving aren't in directories that Apache can get to
directly, i.e. not in a "Document Root" or aliased directory (although it
has the right permissions to get the files).

readfile()
http://php.net/readfile

Is it possible to do this with PHP?

Yes.

Can PHP just spit out the right MIME information and then somehow open and
encode the file and the client will treat it properly?

See mime_content_type()
http://php.net/mime_content_type

Are there any PHP functions that help with the encoding?

What do you mean?
Maybe some of the function in http://php.net/recode or
http://php.net/unicode would help, but I doubt it.

Are there any good web references?

Yes. The PHP manual :)
http://php.net/manual
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