Building PHP applications will require file interaction a lot, one of them is download file from URL using PHP. This article will guide you the very basic methods of using PHP for downloading file from an URL.

To download file from URL using PHP

There are two general methods to download file from URL using PHP:

1. Using PHP file_get_contents and file_put_contents function:

This method can only be used if the web hosting allows the file_get_contents function to run. A lot of the web hosting turns off this function for security reasons, so you should check if the function is enabled before using this method.

After successfully getting the file, file_put_contents will be used to actually save the file into a location.

<?php

// Set the URL for downloading
$fileUrl = 'https://php101.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/php101-logo-horizontal-250x74-1.png';

// Get the file name and extension using basename()
$fileName = basename( $fileUrl );

// Specify file save path
$savePath = '/dir/' . $fileName;

// Use file_get_contents to get the file, use @ to hide possible errors
$file = @file_get_contents( $fileUrl );

// Use file_put_contents to save the file using the path we defined, and check if there are any errors
if ( file_put_contents( $savePath, $file ) ) {
    echo 'File downloaded successfully';
} else {
    echo 'File failed to download';
}

If the message tells that the download is successful, the file will be store on the save path we defined.

2. Using PHP CURL and fopen:

The CURL method is more widely used, and we recommend you to use PHP CURL for downloading files from URLs instead of using file_get_contents function.

CURL provides more compatibility, more controls over the downloading process and helps you to get familiar with using CURL in PHP, which will be crucial for many other network-related tasks in PHP. Also, working with fopen will be more convenient later with file interaction tasks.

To download file from URL using PHP with CURL and fopen:

<?php

// Set the URL for downloading
$fileUrl = 'https://php101.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/php101-logo-horizontal-250x74-1.png';

// Initialize CURL
$ch = curl_init( $url );

// Get the file name and extension using basename()
$fileName = basename( $fileUrl );

// Specify file save path
$savePath = '/dir/' . $fileName;

// Initialize fopen pointer to store the file.
// 'w' is write mode, and 'b' is binary mode, can be excluded if the file is a text-based file
$fp = fopen( $savePath, 'wb' );

// Set the file transfer option and header to CURL
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0 );

// Execute the CURL session
curl_exec( $ch );

// Close the session after running to free resources
curl_close( $ch );

// Close file pointer
fclose( $fp ); 

If no error displays after running the codes, the file will be stored at the defined $savePath location.

Final thoughts

The tutorial is now over. Hopefully it is helpful for you to understand the basic knowledge to download file from URL using PHP with file_get_contents and CURL.

Thank you for reading!

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References

• Official PHP.net Documentation – file_get_contents function
• Official PHP.net Documentation – file_put_contents function
• Official PHP.net Documentation – fopen function
• Official PHP.net Documentation – fclose function
• Official PHP.net Documentation – CURL