Downloading Files with PHP and CURL

I am trying to download a file from an API that I am successfully talking to, however, when I hit the file, it outputs just a bunch of crazy characters. I believe it is the .zip stream, and I just need to get the .csv file that should be in there.

From the API documentation:

curl -XGET -H 'X-API-TOKEN: <API TokenZ' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' https://co1.qualtrics.com/API/v3/surveys/SV_50EhstBgHEG2voV/export-responses/2671b6ec-66e0-4e7b-90bc-77174363763d/file -o responses.zip

Here is what I have:

$file = 'https://co1.qualtrics.com/API/v3/surveys/'.$qualtrics_id.'/export-responses/'.$file_json['result']['fileId'].'/file';

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $file);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_ENCODING, "");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "GET");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

    $result = curl_exec($ch);

    echo $result;

    curl_close ($ch);

And this is what it gives me:

PKr�JOTest survey.csv�Wmo�����¸�w���W��"��i��M6�m�˂�h����T���3�$+�}{-ĶD93�<3~tܸ+�Dt� ���qW����eQam����� wR+��T̊\����$���(�;��B�]��jeō�[)�{ϭ��o�a�'i���7\V���F��N��*�{�{�����7��:�\I�\�4�cɕU�� �u��"�MS|��It;�ng��<�͢�$�'�g���C$�d9��~���b-T왗�~������mwsu�l�9H�w<�:ڒ������>����J��i�3� �J�~���+�xr��J���W�m�ѰR�V��*X��lYk�޲��Tc9Wl)FRS��B�]��%7����R�zYU��tۭP�T�Y��_��-����v8��VP�K��R� *n�2�ƈu�&����-V� ��y%��� Kh�,���o��e���Y�w���K�.#x�c;]����6��!��уһJƗ�vl+���T��-���A�DTa:P����x�JK��h�y� �t �܈BRLA0K+*� �}�-�AX�\`%`�]+����򒠳d,�n�׵g�R��[Y��]� 3�R)��x�?�ۭFjH%��]Ǥ�7����߄p���B"���@p�[����0d�+L���!�������?��x�JoV�Iz"�J���h%��lM�z��ZU![�x�40��$�0hY�0�xST��U�^��G"XT �;�ʞk�����sr�#��� ��F��,4D�v(T6r"w#QI���T;d7㊪^��bW6��pT�B��Q\~`�V�R�/�� ,q�R���\�U�B0ԇ6 ��>ռ�oT�֪|ߖ� � gߍ�x��ĩ����k4$�D�Z�Y���o+�Ƿٞ��d ��K:��r*��O�PXIYB�T�������E5-��������p����S��n�ڳ��$Ptʱ_��቎8��9�S�6��J`��'Q?هJ+X�,� ��@�C�)N���%�����[J`�y���J�"b�?�,� |�JT��ߔ��V���9���c�+��!7��X��}��V�P�nC�9fjվP�|E�0�A��`�}������'��r��H1o��8���ҕ�{�B4� �0>罐i���<�תFp��~��O���L:jEP�N@݈\�@T�4����� ��D����!�_�I<�� ��X��r�SK��MyDG*�h�>�8JM��F���=+��8���8!��e�3�5��K)X|`��3v�� oR���z�}�6������5����gu��5��j��W�I���#b,z���sH�yӜ�c�1����D�uA�:U��b���e�x!�Me>��fH���me�Vn�@d%u�ǔD6C���ynT`a�_��My޳G ���ҹ��͛�n7�HK��e��8�W�E�|״�~���& }�G��T���Jd�!i�^�؂]�4�n�Uc����#�R@��[\��NDDx�� �.4�����i{�:��чw�;��ժۘh`�o��{_y�nE�7���M^Nu����zd*t��h�!}@�9p�����v����_�-�����m��e@��X᧾���� [�����9�m.d����-��l�\�NϮ�+��Yӻ�nO��U7��|~���Xw�����6��Es���dw�<-Z�Ͽ!��8�@��&Z��]�OK��\�����3��3ӳ3��3�3�ٙ$>?�������:?s�����8�fq6�N��$�J�=�C]���F���� �FLY�.F�b��w���Y����״��~���ۏ����g6�/�%�E<^��ы�q���a2M��?3o����w_q���;y����_��J��h<�b��eI���$�&i2��G���&Ϭ�.������d���I�'���E���t�ݦ�b�_���8ɲy�%q�$x��l����,�������PK��{pnZPKr�JO��{pnZTest survey.csvPK=�

I am not sure what to do with this, I would like to at least be able to download the zip file with the .csv files in there, however, it would be more than ideal to simply get the "Test survey.csv" file, but I haven't been able to do either, I have tried many different things such as:

// header('Content-Type: application/zip');

// readfile($result);

// $z = new ZipArchive();
// $h = $z->getStream( $result );

// stream_get_contents($result);

All with no luck, any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Solution

with the CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER option is set curl_exec will return downloaded content in the result. So, your variable $result actually contains the content of the file (PKr�... is a ZIP-header)

So, all you need, just to save the content of the variable in a file, instead of echoing it into the browser.

For example.

    ...

    $result = curl_exec($ch);

    file_put_contents('downloaded.zip', $result); // save the string to a file

    curl_close ($ch);