Save As, Headers and IE 5.5

Anon

Ok here's my dilema, I'm trying to force the browser to pop up a Save As dialog box for a .wav file. I realize its up to the browser to determine how to handle the extension but I found that using a combination of header commands I can trick the browser into saving the file. The problem lies in IE 5.5 where the Save As dialog comes up fine but ultimately saves the webpage calling the file and not the file itself. Here is the code that I currently have.

header("Content-Description: Sound File - $filename");

header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream\n");

header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"");

header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");

$fn=fopen("http://www.iquest.ws/sounds/$filename" , "r");

fpassthru($fn);

the working example of this is at:
http://www.iquest.ws/?sndr.1 (click the little disk drive next to a sound file then click "Download")

i've tried different combinations of header commands and I still haven't gotten it to work, any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Thanx,
Jace

andreas

just use some crazy mime that the browser is sure to not know:

header("Content-Type: application/retarded-browser-dont-know-this-mime\n");

This will work...

Andreas

Anon

Still no go 🙁 IE 5.5 insists on download the webpage and not the file. I does pop up the Save As dialog but it still ultimately downloads the webpage in (.htm).

Any suggestions?

Thanx
Jace

jlhaase

Jace,

Have you tried actually looking at the downloaded htm file. I went ahead and saved it and the opened it in a text editor. On any file that I try to download it gives me the following text...
<script language='Javascript'> alert('That soundfile can not be found.') </scrip
t><script language='Javascript'> window.close() </script>
. So it looks like your script is encountering a problem trying to actually open the file...

Jonathan

Anon

Yes, trust me the files are there and it comes up in Netscape (4/5/6) and IE (4/5) but not in IE5.5 .. I guess this is an issue to take up with Microsoft? Hmm.. well thank you anyway guys.

Anon

This is a known bug in ie5.5 sp1, but it appears microsoft refuses to release a fix for it. This forces me to use mozilla which displays correct behavior, which is actually fine by me... 🙂
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q281/1/19.asp

Anon

I worked around this by using the correct filename extension in the filename header.

Although, it appears that IE5.5 is using the filename of the referring page in the save as box, not the filename that i specify in the header of the file that is being downloaded (not even the filename of the file being downloaded!)

I'm putting in workaronuds that just don't make sense, but hey, it works.
(providing you only need one download per page i suppose)

rob.

Anon

actully, ignore me - that still downloads an htm file - if i do 'open' and then 'open' twice in a row, it opens, but saveas still no go.

never mind.

Anon

Did you ever resolve this problem? I think I am getting the same problem. I have tried multiple combinations of Content-Type and Content-Disposition. I have tried variations with and without filename and with "inline" and "attachment" values. I have also tried various content type combinations: "application/download", "application/x-msdownload",
"application/theactualmimetypeoffiletobedownloaded", and others.

I read about the bug in IE5.5 SP1. This seems to be the source of the problem, but I am hoping there is some way to work around this.

Anon

Nope I haven't. I think this might a permanent one. So in my frusteration I decided just to scrap the whole project I was working on... Might as well learn VB or something and write a client site app ... probably would be simpler...

Jace

Anon

Check this out for a workaround:

Create some client side code like:

var wDocument = null;
// Only called with IE55
function onClickIE55()
{
if (!wDocument.closed)
wDocument.close();
}

// Only called with IE55
function openWindowIE55(sURL)
{
wDocument = window.open(sURL, "wDocument", "location=no,menubar=no,resizable=no,scrollbars=no,status=no,toolbars=no,height=100,width=100,top=1500,left=1500", true);
wDocument.blur();
window.focus();
window.document.onclick = onClickIE55;
}

Then write your link for IE55 as:
<A HREF="javascript: openWindowIE55('getDocument.php3?ID=7');">Open Document</A>

Other browsers can keep the same old link like:
<A HREF="getDocument.php3?ID=7">Open Document</A>

Now make sure the content headers work as before when the document is served:

Content-Type: fileMIMEType
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=filename.ext
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

Somehow if you make your link point to a new window the download pops up correctly (however to open the link you have to say so twice). It is just that the behavior of the rogue window is relatively uncontrolable. Even writing some text to it causes the download to fail in one way or another.

So I resorted to creating the window off screen so the user is relatively unaware of its existance. I tried going farther out but the code didn't seem to consistently work. When the main window is clicked on again it will find and close the rogue window. But the window was around long enough to create a download. I tried finding better events to solve this with, but had no luck. I also had a lot of problems with losing the reference to the window in JavaScript.

Finally... it ain't perfect, but at least I can rest easy again.

Anon

I actually found kind of a pseudo fix, try misspelling attachement, and voila, it works. It breaks some other browsers though, so do a check on the HTTP_USER_AGENT string first.

This probably isn't the proper way to fix this, but it works, and it works NOW. I fixed it by doing something like this: (sorry if this looks like dirt, but they give a damn small TEXTAREA box on these forums and no preview, so there's no way to tell 🙂

if(strstr($HTTP_USER_AGENT, 'MSIE 5.5')) {
// spell attachment wrong for msie5.5 sp1, cause microsoft is retarded
header("Content-Disposition: atttachment; filename=filename.csv");
} else {
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=filename.csv");
}

Anon

Hello, folks.

I´m use a browser verification and write a specific code. And it works. ;-)

....

String sBrowser = ""+request.getHeader("User-Agent") ;

boolean bIE55 = (sBrowser.toUpperCase().indexOf("MSIE 5.5")!=-1) ;

if(bIE55) { // IE 5.5 with bug (text anything is ok)
response.setContentType("application/download; name=\""+sRemoteFile+"\"") ;
response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "anything; filename="+sRemoteFile+"") ;
}
else {
response.setContentType("application/octet-stream; name=\""+sRemoteFile+"\"") ;
response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename="+sRemoteFile+"") ;
}

.....

References:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q281/1/19.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q267/9/91.ASP

The IE 5.5 Service Pack 1 do not resolve.

Bye

Anon

Hi there.
This discussion may be dead, but I just said Id ask if anybody found anything more on the matter, as its causing me serious headaches.
Cheers.