Problem with

Anon

I'm using readfile() to pass files of different types to a browser. I've encountered a really strange problem with passing PDF files and Internet Explorer.

When I pass a PDF file of over 10KB everything works fine and the document comes right up. However, when I pass a PDF file of under 10KB the document does not come up and instead the browser displays a blank screen.

Hitting reload at that point causes the document to display correctly.

Netscape does not have this problem - it pulls the document right up.

Any ideas as to what might be going on???

Thanks,
Brad

jordanj

Internet Explorer is most likely finding out that Netscape is installed on the system and it must also know that Netscape is pulling up the information properly. I haveing a similar problem with similar results. On my system, Netscape is finding out that IE is pulling up the pages I want properly, and is determined to put a stop to what I feel is the proper function of my system in any means that it can find possible. And since I have experienced the reverse of your theorized problem first hand and some deductive reasoning thrown in the mix, I have come to the aformentioned root of your problem. From here on out, I wish you luck in your quest of finding a happy solution to your odd predicament, for you most definately will need all the luck you can scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

Houston Out.

jordanj

I sincerely apologize for my poor grammar and composition skills. I am tired.

vfwood

hmmmm.....

Nice idea about the browser war ;-)

Is this a file you are creating on the fly and then throwing at the browser? I had problems creating a pdf and then straight away passing it to the browser. It was when I had first created it. If I loaded it a second or so after creating it it was fine, but not straight away. As far as help though...

Have you tried creating a link to the pdf or using javascript to redirect to it?

Any more info would help.

Anon

No - I am not creating it on the fly, I am using readfile() - essentially passing the file through to the browser (the behavior is exhibited using fpassthru() as well).

It's definitely some sort of browser thing - probably along the lines MSIE requiring 404 pages to be at least 512KB - just random M$ headaches!

So, essentially, what I am doing is using readfile() with a Content-Type header to pass the file to the browser. Directly linking to the file does not cause this problem, but that is not how I want to do it of course 🙂

vfwood

With Internet Explorer you need to send the file size as part of the Header() with pdf files as in the example

header("Content-Length: ".filesize($filename));
// for IE to work

Anon

Thanks Vini - that worked like a charm!!