John Davidson

Message:

In my script I'm reaching out to an API to get a task ID that should be used to download one or more files. The connection to the APIs is working as expected and after some processing I'm able to get the ID I need from the appropriate endpoint.

In order to proceed to downloading the file(s), I need the file name that is returned by the Content-Disposition header, so I used get_headers() as follows to get the headers:

    function downloadFiles() {

    

      $taskID = getTaskID();



      // Call with variable won't work

      $url = "https://example.com/api/v1/document/export/$taskID";



      $opts = [

          'http' => [

              'header' => [

                  "Authorization: Basic " . base64_encode('myapikey'),

                  'Accept: */*'

              ]

          ]

      ];

      $context = stream_context_create($opts);

      $headers = get_headers($url, true, $context);



     return $headers;

   }



#########################################################



    function downloadFiles() {

    

      $taskID = getTaskID();



      // Call with literal string works

      $url = "https://example.com/api/v1/document/export/xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx";



      $opts = [

          'http' => [

              'header' => [

                  "Authorization: Basic " . base64_encode('myapikey'),

                  'Accept: */*'

              ]

          ]

      ];

      $context = stream_context_create($opts);

      $headers = get_headers($url, true, $context);



     return $headers;

   }

If I use the code above with $taskID as a variable I get back a HTTP/1.1 204 No Content without the Content-Disposition, however, if I hardcode the task ID string that I get back from my getTaskID() function (correctly fetching the string id), it works with a 200 and the needed header.

Is there any caching going on here? Is just not possible to use a static value here as the ID changes after each call to the download endpoint.

---

My Answer:
It is unlikely that there is caching going on in this scenario. The issue may be related to how the $taskID variable is being used in the URL.

One thing to check is if the $taskID variable contains any special characters or whitespace that may be causing issues when constructing the URL. You can try using urlencode() function to encode the $taskID before appending it to the URL.

Another thing to consider is if the $taskID variable is being properly sanitized and validated before being used in the URL. Make sure that the $taskID value is in the correct format and does not contain any unexpected characters.

If the issue persists, you may want to check the API documentation to see if there are any specific requirements or restrictions for the task ID parameter in the URL. It is possible that the API endpoint expects the task ID to be formatted in a certain way or encoded in a specific manner.

Overall, it is important to ensure that the $taskID variable is being handled correctly and that it is being properly passed to the API endpoint in order to receive the expected response with the Content-Disposition header.