How to dynamically present an on the fly zipfile to users

Question

I'm editing an ancient script that zips several images and presents them dynamically to the user.

I have rewritten almost all of the code, but I can't find a way to way to output the contents of the zipfile. Writing it to the server is very undesirable.

I create the file with:

$z = new ZipArchive();

I can add content with:

$z->addFromString("filename",$string);

And I want to present it dynamically with:

header("Content-Type: application/zip;");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=file.zip;");

// I need a function to read the contents of the zipfile here. Something like:
echo $z->filecontent();

I can't find out what function to use for this.

Answer 1

You would open the file, creating it most likely with temp name. Something like this:

$name = tempnam('/tmp','zip');
$z->open($name, ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE)

After you finish adding all your files, you would close it.

$z->close();

Now when you are ready to send the data you would do this:

readfile($name);

After you are done, you want to clean up the temp file with:

unlink($name);

Answer 2

If you read the documentation, look at the close() method to actually save the file physically to the filesystem. Then you can use readfile() on the saved file