HTTP send file

Sends a file with support for (multiple) range requests. It is able to throttle the download and adds an etag to the request. It is quite small and simple.

Install

With composer add to your "require" section:

composer require diversen/http-send-file

Usage example:

use Diversen\Sendfile;
$s = new Sendfile();
        
// if you don't set type - we will try to guess it
$s->setContentType('application/epub+zip');
        
// if you don't set disposition (file name user agent will see)
// we will make a file name from file
$s->setContentDisposition('test.epub');

// Expires header. Default is a date in the past
$s->setExpires(3600);
        
// chunks of 40960 bytes per 0.1 secs
// if you don't set this then the values below are the defaults
// approx 40960 bytes per sec
$s->throttle(0.1, 40960);

// file
$file = '/some/dir/test.epub';

// send the file
try {
    $s->send($file);
} catch (\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
}

So you could just do like this:

use Diversen\Sendfile;
$s = new Sendfile();

// file
$file = '/some/dir/test.epub';

// send the file
try {
    $s->send($file);
} catch (\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
}

// but check the headers if it is not
// working as expected as the guessing
// of content-type does not always work
// correctly. 

Without sending content-disposition header:

// without sending content-disposition header
// 2. param = false
try {
    $s->send($file, false);
} catch (\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
}

Test notes

Build image:

docker build -t php-apache2 .

Run the docker image:

docker run -d -p 8080:80 -v $(pwd):/var/www/html --name test-send-file php-apache2

Enable autoloading:

composer install

Go to the browser at: http://localhost:8080/test

Or use curl, e.g.:

curl -v -L -O -C - http://localhost:8080/test/send_large_file.php

Credits

Much of the code is taken (and rewritten) from here:

http://w-shadow.com/blog/2007/08/12/how-to-force-file-download-with-php/

The process is nicely explained here:

http://www.media-division.com/the-right-way-to-handle-file-downloads-in-php/

MIT © Dennis Iversen