Copy Image from Remote Server Over HTTP

Question

I am looking for a simple way to import/copy images from remote server to a local folder using PHP. I have no FTP access to the server, but all remote images can be accessed via HTTP (i.e. http://www.mydomain.com/myimage.jpg).

Example use: A user wishes to add an image to his profile. The image already exists on the web and the user provides with a direct URL. I do not wish to hotlink the image but to import and serve from my domain.

Outfight

Don't servers have proxy modules for this? – Ganges

Answer 1

If you have PHP5 and the HTTP stream wrapper enabled on your server, it's incredibly simple to copy it to a local file:

copy('http://somedomain.com/file.jpeg', '/tmp/file.jpeg');

This will take care of any pipelining etc. that's needed. If you need to provide some HTTP parameters there is a third 'stream context' parameter you can provide.

Shannan

Remember allow_url_fopen has to be = on in php.ini. – Shaeffer

The allow_url_fopen comment just solved over an hour of head-scratching. Thanks, @mauro.dec! – Kaitlynkaitlynn

what are doning with URLs like this http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg100/scaled.php?server=100&filename=desertoh.jpg&res=crop ??? – Physicist

Thanks for this answer - I think im almost there! When you say '/tmp/file.jpg' - what is that relative to? The ROOT of the web server... (eg: /var/www/vhosts etc) or the root of the website: /httpdocs/... ?? Cant see the files appearing, and I have url-fopen set to ON. !! – Peristalsis

@Peristalsis /tmp/my.file - leading slash always refers to the root of the file system (server in your case) regardless "environment" you are using. – Cochlea

Don't use https, just http – Albertson

I think it's important to remember security when doing this - you're going to want to be careful about what files you pull onto your server, and if they're in a path where things like executables or PHP is runnable. – Travancore

Answer 2

if nothing works, use this quick solution

$imageString = file_get_contents("http://example.com/image.jpg");
$save = file_put_contents('Image/saveto/image.jpg',$imageString);

Putrid

thanks man!! second solution is working.. top of all solution is not works for me :p – Situla

Nice tip for small files, but for larger files php memory will explode :( – Nihhi

Answer 3

PHP has a built-in function file_get_contents(), which reads the content of a file into a string.

<?php
//Get the file
$content = file_get_contents("http://example.com/image.jpg");

//Store in the filesystem. $fp = fopen("/location/to/save/image.jpg", "w"); fwrite($fp, $content); fclose($fp); ?> If you wish to store the file in a database, simply use the $content variable and don't save the file to disk.

Cacodyl

using curl is a good method 'cause some server guys not support the file_get_contents for security reasons – Arezzini

Nice tip for small files, but for larger files php memory will explode :( curl is also no good choice, because its no part of standard php – Nihhi

Answer 4

You've got about these four possibilities:

• Remote files. This needs allow_url_fopen to be enabled in php.ini, but it's the easiest method.

• Alternatively you could use cURL if your PHP installation supports it. There's even an example.

• And if you really want to do it manually use the HTTP module.

• Don't even try to use sockets directly.

Armorer

Why the "Don't even try to use sockets directly."? (Which is what I am using, gist.github.com/0893a7ec908ff508aac6) – Unroot

@Gajus: You're not using sockets directly in that snippet. You're using the capability of php to open remote files. – Chaunceychaunt

Answer 5

Here's the most basic way:

$url = "http://other-site/image.png";
$dir = "/my/local/dir/";

$rfile = fopen($url, "r");
$lfile = fopen($dir . basename($url), "w");

while(!feof($url)) fwrite($lfile, fread($rfile, 1), 1);

fclose($rfile);
fclose($lfile);

But if you're doing lots and lots of this (or your host blocks file access to remote systems), consider using CURL, which is more efficient, mildly faster and available on more shared hosts.

You can also spoof the user agent to look like a desktop rather than a bot!

$url = "http://other-site/image.png";
$dir = "/my/local/dir/";
$lfile = fopen($dir . basename($url), "w");

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $lfile);

fclose($lfile);
curl_close($ch);

With both instances, you might want to pass it through GD to make sure it really is an image.

Arbor

For checking the image with GD, consider running this right after you save the file: psoug.org/snippet/Check_if_an_image_exists_GD_364.htm - if it comes back false, delete the file immediately. – Arbor

You missed curl_exec($ch) before curl_close($ch), and fclose($ch) should be placed in the end rather than before curl_close($ch), that means close the file before nothing has been written to the file, therefore you'll only get an empty file. – Organotherapy

Answer 6

It's extremely simple using file_get_contents. Just provide the url as the first parameter.

Uruguay

This is locked down to local filesystems on a lot of shared hosts for security reasons. cURL is better, faster, stronger, etc... And usually available on those hosts that block fopen on remote filesystems. – Arbor

if cURL is available, that would be even better. see <a href="se2.php.net/curl">cUrl at php.net</a> – Uruguay

Answer 7

make folder and name it foe example download open note pad and insert this code

only change http://www.google.com/aa.zip to your file and save it to m.php for example

chamod the php file to 666 and the folder download to 777

<?php
define('BUFSIZ', 4095);
$url = 'http://www.google.com/aa.zip';
$rfile = fopen($url, 'r');
$lfile = fopen(basename($url), 'w');
while(!feof($rfile))
fwrite($lfile, fread($rfile, BUFSIZ), BUFSIZ);
fclose($rfile);
fclose($lfile);
?>

finally from your browser enter to these URL http://www.example.com/download/m.php

you will see in download folder the file download from other server

thanks

Pratfall

Answer 8

Use a GET request to download the image and save it to a web accessible directory on your server.

As you are using PHP, you can use curl to download files from the other server.

Ezequieleziechiele

Answer 9

Since you've tagged your question 'php', I'll assume your running php on your server. Your best bet is if you control your own web server, then compile cURL into php. This will allow your web server to make requests to other web servers. This can be quite dangerous from a security point of view, so most basic web hosting providers won't have this option enabled.

Here's the php man page on using cURL. In the comments you can find an example which downloads and image file.

If you don't want to use libcurl, you could code something up using fsockopen. This is built into php (but may be disabled on your host), and can directly read and write to sockets. See Examples on the fsockopen man page.

Williams

Answer 10

For those who need to preserve the original filename and extension

$origin = 'http://example.com/image.jpg';

$filename = pathinfo($origin, PATHINFO_FILENAME);
$ext = pathinfo($origin, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);

$dest = 'myfolder/' . $filename . '.' . $ext;

copy($origin, $dest);

Skulduggery

Answer 11

This answer helped to me download image from server to client side.

<a download="original_file.jpg" href="file/path.jpg">
  <img src="file/path.jpg" class="img-responsive" width="600" />
</a>

Kootenay