Why Response::download() won't download anything except PDF in Laravel 4?

Question

This is the line of code which is giving me sick.

return Response::download(storage_path().'/file/' . $file->id . "." . $file->file->extension);

The files are uploaded and given an id which they are saved under eg 25.pdf this works fine if the file is a PDF but doesn't for anything else eg PNG. we upgraded from Laravel 3 to 4 to try to overcome this problem.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I just uploaded a test text file with the word test in it once I uploaded it and then downloaded it I opened it, there were 3 blank lines and the letters te!!!!!I downloaded it through sftp and the file is correctly stored on the server so it is defiantly the download procedure!

Answer 1

I used this function instead of any of the Laravel stuff. :/ (Stolen from other places around the web)

public static function big_download($path, $name = null, array $headers = array()) {
    if (is_null($name))
        $name = basename($path);
    $finfo = finfo_open(FILEINFO_MIME_TYPE);

    $pathParts = pathinfo($path);
    // Prepare the headers
    $headers = array_merge(array(
        'Content-Description' => 'File Transfer',
        'Content-Type' => finfo_file($finfo, $path),
        'Content-Transfer-Encoding' => 'binary',
        'Expires' => 0,
        'Cache-Control' => 'must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0',
        'Pragma' => 'public',
        'Content-Length' => File::size($path),
        'Content-Disposition' => 'inline; filename="' . $name . '.' . $pathParts['extension'] . '"'
            ), $headers);
    finfo_close($finfo);

    $response = new Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response('', 200, $headers);

    // If there's a session we should save it now
    if (Config::get('session.driver') !== '') {
        Session::save();
    }

    // Below is from http://uk1.php.net/manual/en/function.fpassthru.php comments
    session_write_close();
    ob_end_clean();
    $response->sendHeaders();
    if ($file = fopen($path, 'rb')) {
        while (!feof($file) and (connection_status() == 0)) {
            print(fread($file, 1024 * 8));
            flush();
        }
        fclose($file);
    }

    // Finish off, like Laravel would
    Event::fire('laravel.done', array($response));
    $response->foundation->finish();

    exit;
}

Answer 2

One may ask, How can i get path to file in laravel?

Path to file can be achieved like:

public function getDownload(){

        $file = public_path()."/downloads/info.pdf";
        $headers = array('Content-Type: application/pdf',);
        return Response::download($file, 'info.pdf',$headers);
    }

function will download file from : 'project/public/download' folder.

(don't forget to set-up routes and controller by your self)

Answer 3

Try including the MIME in the return:

$file = storage_path().'/file/' . $file->id . "." . $file->file->extension;
return Response::download($file, 200, array('content-type' => 'image/png'));

Answer 4

If you are using Windows, go to php.ini and then uncomment " extension=php_fileinfo.dll " section and then use this code:

Route::get('file/download', function()
{
    $file = public_path(). '\download\myfile.png';
    return Response::download($file);
});