PHP: stream remote pdf to client browser

Question

there's a pdf generated on an external service and I would like to stream the pdf to the browser in my php server while streaming to client so that I don't need to download the pdf from the remote file and then start initializing download. I would just have the file immediately download or stream to the client requesting it.

Locative

Answer 1

Assuming that the generated pdf is in http://bar.com/foo.pdf, you could do:

  $data = file_get_contents("http://bar.com/foo.pdf");
  header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
  header("Content-disposition: attachment;filename=YOURFILE.pdf");

  echo $data;

Domino

this is what I used instead of of fopen("php://"); – Locative

It is better to use readfile rather than loading the PDF file into memory php.net/manual/en/function.readfile.php – Limnology

What's the difference between 'application/octet-stream" and "application/pdf"? – Lordinwaiting

@Lordinwaiting application/octet-stream is for attachment while application/pdf is for display inline (without download) – Madewell

Answer 2

Even this is an old question but I found it when looking for something else, so, my response is for next visitors

To render a pdf file as stream use the Header:

header("Content-disposition: inline; filename=YOURFILE.pdf");

ref: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Disposition

Syndetic