Question

I’ve written a PHP script that handles file downloads, determining which file is being requested and setting the proper HTTP headers to trigger the browser to actually download the file (rather than displaying it in the browser).

I now have a problem where some users have reported certain files being identified incorrectly (so regardless of extension, the browser will consider it a GIF image). I’m guessing this is because I haven’t set the "Content-type" in the response header. Is this most likely the case? If so, is there a fairly generic type that could be used for all files, rather than trying to account for every possible file type?

Currently I’m only setting the value "Content-disposition: attachment; filename=arandomf.ile"

Update: I followed this guide here to build a more robust process for file downloads (http://w-shadow.com/blog/2007/08/12/how-to-force-file-download-with-php/), but there is a significant delay between when the script is executed and when the browser’s download dialog appears. Can anyone identify the bottleneck that is causing this?

Here’s my implementation:

/**  * Outputs the specified file to the browser.  *  * @param string $filePath the path to the file to output  * @param string $fileName the name of the file  * @param string $mimeType the type of file  */ function outputFile($filePath, $fileName, $mimeType = '') {     // Setup     $mimeTypes = array(         'pdf' => 'application/pdf',         'txt' => 'text/plain',         'html' => 'text/html',         'exe' => 'application/octet-stream',         'zip' => 'application/zip',         'doc' => 'application/msword',         'xls' => 'application/vnd.ms-excel',         'ppt' => 'application/vnd.ms-powerpoint',         'gif' => 'image/gif',         'png' => 'image/png',         'jpeg' => 'image/jpg',         'jpg' => 'image/jpg',         'php' => 'text/plain'     );          $fileSize = filesize($filePath);     $fileName = rawurldecode($fileName);     $fileExt = '';          // Determine MIME Type     if($mimeType == '') {         $fileExt = strtolower(substr(strrchr($filePath, '.'), 1));                  if(array_key_exists($fileExt, $mimeTypes)) {             $mimeType = $mimeTypes[$fileExt];         }         else {             $mimeType = 'application/force-download';         }     }          // Disable Output Buffering     @ob_end_clean();          // IE Required     if(ini_get('zlib.output_compression')) {         ini_set('zlib.output_compression', 'Off');     }          // Send Headers     header('Content-Type: ' . $mimeType);     header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . $fileName . '"');     header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');     header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');          // Send Headers: Prevent Caching of File     header('Cache-Control: private');     header('Pragma: private');     header('Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT');          // Multipart-Download and Download Resuming Support     if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'])) {         list($a, $range) = explode('=', $_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'], 2);         list($range) = explode(',', $range, 2);         list($range, $rangeEnd) = explode('-', $range);                  $range = intval($range);                  if(!$rangeEnd) {             $rangeEnd = $fileSize - 1;         }         else {             $rangeEnd = intval($rangeEnd);         }                  $newLength = $rangeEnd - $range + 1;                  // Send Headers         header('HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content');         header('Content-Length: ' . $newLength);         header('Content-Range: bytes ' . $range - $rangeEnd / $fileSize);     }     else {         $newLength = $fileSize;         header('Content-Length: ' . $fileSize);     }          // Output File     $chunkSize = 1 * (1024*1024);     $bytesSend = 0;          if($file = fopen($filePath, 'r')) {         if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'])) {             fseek($file, $range);                          while(!feof($file) && !connection_aborted() && $bytesSend < $newLength) {                 $buffer = fread($file, $chunkSize);                 echo $buffer;                 flush();                 $bytesSend += strlen($buffer);             }                          fclose($file);         }     } } 

Answer 1

Acoording to RFC 2046 (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions):

The recommended action for an implementation that receives an
‘application/octet-stream’ entity is to simply offer to put the data in a file

So I’d go for that one.