What are the best practices for handling binary data and type conversions in PHP when communicating with a server?
When communicating with a server in PHP, it is important to properly handle binary data and type conversions to ensure data integrity. To achieve this, you can use functions like `pack()` and `unpack()` to convert data to and from binary format. Additionally, make sure to set the appropriate content-type headers when sending binary data to the server.
// Example of packing and unpacking binary data
$data = 'Hello World';
$binaryData = pack('A*', $data); // Pack data as binary
$unpackedData = unpack('A*', $binaryData); // Unpack binary data
// Sending binary data to the server with appropriate content-type
$binaryData = file_get_contents('file.bin');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
echo $binaryData;