How to output a file from CodeIgniter without forcing download? - codeigniter

Question

There seem to be lots of solutions out there for CodeIgniter to force download of a file, but I can't find any for outputting a file without forcing a download.
In my case, I've redirected my file downloads through a controller (originally Apache handled them directly) in order to log statistics. I used the CodeIgniter force_download function in the download helper. However, I've now had a request that some or all files should be able to be opened in the browser, such that saving to a file isn't forced, so I'm wanting to know how to do it.
Presumably, it's mostly a matter of outputting the right header, though I don't know whether different headers will be required for different file types. Has anyone got an example?

Answer 1

You just have to specify the good mime-type and omit Content-Disposition: attachment.
So if the browser can render it, it will be display. If it can't, it will be download.
example:
$file = 'images/smileys/panda.gif';
if (file_exists($file))
{
$finfo = new finfo(FILEINFO_MIME);
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: '.$finfo->file($file));
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
readfile($file);
exit;
}