Download File from URL

In this tutorial I will explain you how to download file from URL. We two methods to get content from external URL’s, file_get_contents and CURL.

Using file_get_contents : This function reads entire file into a string. But this function only works when fopen is enabled.

$fileUrl = 'http://www.gettyimages.in/gi-resources/images/Homepage/Hero/UK/CMS_Creative_164657191_Kingfisher.jpg';
$fileExt = substr(strrchr($fileUrl,'.'),1);
$fileNewName = 'files/'.time().".".$fileExt;

$fp = fopen($fileNewName, 'wb');
$content = file_get_contents($fileUrl);
fwrite($fp, $content);
fclose($fp);

Using CURL : CURL supports http, https, ftp, file protocols and more. Mostly enabled on all server these days.

$fileUrl = 'http://www.gettyimages.in/gi-resources/images/Homepage/Hero/UK/CMS_Creative_164657191_Kingfisher.jpg';
$fileExt = substr(strrchr($fileUrl,'.'),1);
$fileNewName = 'files/'.time().".".$fileExt;

$ch = curl_init($fileUrl);
$fp = fopen($fileNewName, 'wb');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fp);

If you are using https url and you don’t have SSL certificate file then you can add following lines with CURL:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);

You can use any of the above methods to download file from url. CURL is mostly used method these days, so I prefer CURL. fopen function with ‘wb’ is used to create a file for writing.

Hope this will help you to download file from URL.