why does an empty pdf file created in the same folder when i click download every time?

Question

i was trying to force download pdf files on my website. The file was downloaded successfully but an empty file is created in the same folder with a random name when download is clicked. i'm having multiple null files in the folder.

download.php :

<?php

    $file = $_GET['file'];    
    header('Content-type: application/pdf');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));  
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$file.'"');                     

?>

Answer 1

Assuming you store your pdf in database.

        //you need to decode
        $decoded = base64_decode($downloaded->pdf);
        //name of pdf
        $filename =date('Ymdhis').'.pdf';
        $size=strlen($decoded);
           


            header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
            header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
            header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.($filename).'"');
            header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
            header('Expires: 0');
            header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");
            header("Pragma: no-cache");
            header('Content-Length:'.$size);
            echo($decoded);
            exit;

Please note, if you send some headers before it will not working.

Make sure you create properly your pdf file.

    $decoded = base64_decode($downloaded->pdf);
    $filename =date('Ymdhis').'.pdf';
   //if file doesn't exists
   if(!file_exists($filename)){
    //we create file in the location 
   $fp=fopen($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/tmp/'.$dir_name.''.$filename,'a+');                                                 
 //We write in 
 fwrite($fp, $decoded);
 }