Download file via PHP from FTP, like normally downloading a file?

Question

I am currently trying to retrieve a file from an FTP-Server in order to make it accessible for the user to download. ftp_get() writes it to a path on the local machine, yes, but what I want is that it also shows up in the download history and counts as "normal" download from the internet but I didn't figure out how to do this yet. I also tried to link directly to the file in PHP with header("Location: ftp://username:password@ftp.server.com/myfile.file") but this was resulting in the browser showing the files contents (which I didn't want). Did I miss any header-Parameters ? Or is there a completely different way to do this ?

Answer 1

You won't be able to "redirect" a user to a file so he can download it using FTP. This is a HTTP-thing. Browsers provides FTP features and make it look like HTTP but, in fact, those are different stuff.

If this file is only accessible through FTP and it is on a remote server, the only way I can imagine so you cand 'redirect' this download to the user is:

• Download the file from the FTP to your application server through FTP in PHP;
• Send it to the user using PHP and appropriate file headers, something like this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/7263943/2802720

Hope it helps.