Linking to file with different filename...

komodosp

Sorry about the dodgy subject... But anyway.. Is there any way (the simpler the better) of accomplishing the following.

I have a file that I want a user on a website to be able to download. Let's call it example.pdf

However, it's stored on the server as example.pdf.28u028402840

Is there any (preferably simple even pure HTML if possible) way of linking to this file, but it appears to the user to be example.pdf (ESPECIALLY that it saves as example.pdf and can be opened in the browser if it has a pdf reader extension)

I'm using PHP on an apache server. I don't want to use .htaccess as the filename could be changing all the time depending on what the admin is doing. Next week it could be another_example.pdf.2094028402

duffman85

From PHP manual on headers - example 1 http://php.net/manual/en/function.header.php
[PHP]<?php
// We'll be outputting a PDF
header('Content-type: application/pdf');

// It will be called downloaded.pdf
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="downloaded.pdf"');

// The PDF source is in original.pdf
readfile('original.pdf');
?>
[/PHP]

Would something like this work?
Then make the link as[PHP]<a href="download.php?id=28u028402840">Download</a>[/PHP]
then in download.php do checks on the id and check that the file exists.
You'd have to know the id in advance.

Trojan

ln -s

azzeretti

Trojan wrote: »

ln -s

Symbolic link well be tricky if you've no console access, say in a hosted solution.

Is it just one file? And always will be?
or is it multiple files?

TonyStark

komodosp wrote: »

Sorry about the dodgy subject... But anyway.. Is there any way (the simpler the better) of accomplishing the following.

I have a file that I want a user on a website to be able to download. Let's call it example.pdf

However, it's stored on the server as example.pdf.28u028402840

Is there any (preferably simple even pure HTML if possible) way of linking to this file, but it appears to the user to be example.pdf (ESPECIALLY that it saves as example.pdf and can be opened in the browser if it has a pdf reader extension)

I'm using PHP on an apache server. I don't want to use .htaccess as the filename could be changing all the time depending on what the admin is doing. Next week it could be another_example.pdf.2094028402

In pure HTML... no.

You need a small script to find the file read it into memory and then output it as the new file with the modified name.

If you want the latest you look at the time stamp on the file and the process this one. If you want one with a particular name then you would use a regular expression to parse the file name.

It adds overhead to your web server, but if it's not going to be downloaded a million times a minute.

komodosp

Well it'll be different files all the time, and two files at any one time, as the admin will be uploading and replacing on a weekly basis, but there is no problem matching up the "real" file name to the perceived one as they are stored in the db.
Anyway yeah I was afraid of that... I didn't want to go writing extra PHP and I wanted the user to think that the link was to that file, but ah well...

Liam Byrne

PHP would be the way I'd go, but would a .htaccess redirect do the trick ?

komodosp

No, the files will be changed on a regular basis through the CMS, so the file name would change all the time too.

komodosp

Thanks folks

Decided to go with the PHP (duffman's) solution