[Solved]File(like a picture or music) as output

[Sami]

How can I make a image URL like http://example.com/file.php?name=image.jpg working?I don't actually think it's the best solution to use include() or require() and header("content-type:image/jpg") for this.

[thescientist]

in what context? so that it forces a download box or something?

[Synook]

If you want it to display as an image, then you need to use the right Internet media type. Why do you want such a URL, though? The main motivation for such a system is if your image data is stored in a non-web-accessible location, or apart from the filesystem, e.g. in a database. Then you can select the image data, say using a database query, and print it out. After sending the correct content-type header.

[Sami]

Just that people who aren't logged in cannot access it.Would be nice to know how to force download box too.

[MrFish]

Put it in a folder that isn't accessible by anyone. Then I think you can just call it in plain html tags using an if-statement

if($isLoggedIn)   //echo the image

Other then that, you can store it with a database or generate it manually. You can even make an image like this-

<img src="membersOnlyImage.php"/>

and membersOnlyImage.php is a generated image that sets the header to "Content-type: image/jpg". This way you can cut out the middle-man (this goes back to generating though). As for a force download-

$filename = "yourfile.txt";	header('Content-type: application/force-download');	header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($filename) . '"');	header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');	readfile($filename);

This will automatically start a download.

[Sami]

Yeah, but how can I store it in a database? I didn't even know that MySQL could keep files!

[thescientist]

you don't (have to) store the files, just the file path to the files.

[Sami]

Okay.But then, can I have the file in a path where people cannot access it?Example: The web-folder is "/var/www". Can I store the file in "/home/myUser/files/file.name", then make it accessable thrue "/var/www/file.php?get=file.name"?

[MrFish]

Yes, put it in cgi or google "how to create restricted folders".

[Sami]

I don't know CGI, and there wasn't any usefull results at Google.

[Synook]

You can store entire files in a MySQL database - just use a field of type BLOB (generic binary data).

Example: The web-folder is "/var/www". Can I store the file in "/home/myUser/files/file.name", then make it accessable thrue "/var/www/file.php?get=file.name"?

Yes - just reference the file relative to the system root, e.g.:

file_get_contents("/home/myUser/files/file.name");

[Sami]

With that code - Do I need to set the "Content-type" in the header?( header("content-type:image/jpg"); )

[Synook]

Yes. There is no way around that - but don't worry, there is no performance penalty.

[Sami]

Didn't work - I couldn't see any picture.

[Synook]

Well, show us your code!

[Sami]

header("content-type:image/jpg");file_get_contents("a/picture.jpg");Edit: The code suggested by MrFish did work. Haven't tried it until now..

[justsomeguy]

Headers need correct capitalization and spaces, there needs to be a space after the colon in headers.

[jeffman]

We've been having a rash of case-and-space problems with headers lately.Admittedly, it is confusing to work with multiple contexts in a single environment. And the HTTP spec really could be updated. But I sense something else is afoot. (Or this may just be a recency fallacy.)