I am having big troubles gettinga file to force download. I have php script that allows a user to upload a file, the php uploads it using the php ftp commands. the user can also delete the file. This all works fine, and the file uploads alright, if i go through a ftp client and download the uploaded file, the file is fine.

But i want it all php web based. the user can download uplaoded files, but i dont want the download links shown, so im trying to use the header("Content-type: application/force-download"); method, that pops up the save dialog box.

Now when i click on the file, the save dialog pops up and i can save the file to the local disk, but the file is damaged, it is the right size, example: a 15kb jpeg downloads as a 15kb on the localdisk but is damaged and wont open.

I'm kinda lost why the file is doing this, here is the related code:

PHP Code:

$file = $dir.$sub."/".$_REQUEST["file"]; 
$filename = basename($file); 
header("Content-type: application/force-download"); 
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary"); 
header("Content-length: ".filesize($file)); 
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename"); 
readfile($file); 


if i echo out $file it is:
/usr/home/virtual/ptiphoenix.com/webroot/htdocs/downloads/clients/canadaka/documents/small_logo.png

$filename is: small_logo.png

wrong
header("Content-type: application/force-download");

correct

PHP Code:

header("Content-type: application/octet-stream"); 


i changed it too:
header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");

but the file save dialog box tried to save the file as an html document.

i found the issue, at least the issue that has been stopping it form working this last couple steps.

To test the paths, i was echoing some variables. they were being output before the header. but gave no error. But looking at the file in a hex editor, like you said, i found those echo lines in the file. So I removed the echo's and it seems to be working now! Tested a .png .xls .zip they all work.