I’ll show you 3 php functions that download a particular file (ex: image,video,zip,pdf,doc,xls,etc) from a remote resource (via a valid URL) then save to your server.
Depending on your current php.ini settings, some functions may not work; therefore, let try which function is best for you.
Note: please ensure the folder you want to store the downloaded file is existed and has write permission for everyone or the web process.
Download file from URL with PHP
For all examples below, I assume that we’re going to download a remote image from URL: http://4rapiddev.com/wp-includes/images/logo.jpg and save it to a download sub folder with name: file.jpg.
1. PHP Download Remote File From URL With file_get_contents and file_put_contents
<?php function download_remote_file($file_url, $save_to) { $content = file_get_contents($file_url); file_put_contents($save_to, $content); } ?> |
Example:
<?php download_remote_file('http://4rapiddev.com/wp-includes/images/logo.jpg', realpath("./downloads") . '/file.jpg'); ?> |
2. PHP Download Remote File From URL With CURL
<?php function download_remote_file_with_curl($file_url, $save_to) { $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 0); curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$file_url); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); $file_content = curl_exec($ch); curl_close($ch); $downloaded_file = fopen($save_to, 'w'); fwrite($downloaded_file, $file_content); fclose($downloaded_file); } ?> |
Example:
<?php download_remote_file_with_curl('http://4rapiddev.com/wp-includes/images/logo.jpg', realpath("./downloads") . '/file.jpg'); ?> |
3. PHP Download Remote File From URL With fopen
<?php function download_remote_file_with_fopen($file_url, $save_to) { $in= fopen($file_url, "rb"); $out= fopen($save_to, "wb"); while ($chunk = fread($in,8192)) { fwrite($out, $chunk, 8192); } fclose($in); fclose($out); } ?> |
Example:
<?php download_remote_file_with_fopen('http://4rapiddev.com/wp-includes/images/logo.jpg', realpath("./downloads") . '/file.jpg'); ?> |
Again, “download” folder must be exists and writable.
