Downloading huge files using PHP or any other language?

Question

I have a problem that I recently encountered. My application asks its users to upload videos to share with the private community. They learn videos that are not always optimized for web quality. The problem is that many of the videos are huge, and this is much more than the 50 megabytes I saw in another question. In one case, the video was completed, and the only solution I had was to take the client’s video from box.net, upload it to the video server via FTP, and then link it to the client’s account, manually updating the database. Obviously, we do not want to process the video in this way, we need all this to be processed automatically.

I considered using either box.net or the Dropbox API to facilitate large downloads, but would probably not go there if I didn't need it. We use PHP for the main logic of the site, although I am comfortable with many other languages, especially Python, but including Java, C ++ or Perl. If I have to devote the entire server or server instance to processing the processes, I will.

I would rather use the client version using my own JavaScript browser instead of Flash or other proprietary technologies.

What is the final answer to downloading huge files over the Internet, by processing the server response in PHP or in any other language?

Answer 1

In Apache and PHP, you can increase the limits for processing files of this size. However, the basic HTTP download mechanism does not offer progressive information, so I usually find this acceptable only for LAN connections.

A common alternative is to search for a Flash widget or Javascript. They have the bonus that they can display progressive information and integrate well with a PHP-based website.

Answer 2

For php http://php.net/manual/en/features.file-upload.php

Notice the ini file changes in the first comment.

Edit: suppose you are using timeout problems.