I'm having a similar problem to the one in resolved thread 10628305, but have found it doesn't resolve it for me.
The problem occurs in IE8 for a csv file generated on the fly and for pdf, xls and other types of files retrieved from a database blob, but Opera and Safari both offer the Save or run dialogue, while Chrome doesn't offer a save option, but downloads the files OK. (haven't tried Firefox due to other problems with it currently)
IE8 says:
"Internet Explorer cannot download [generating_script.php] from [website].
Internet Explorer was not able to open this internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later"
The code I'm using for the on-the-fly download is:
$mime_type = "text/comma-separated-values";
header("Content-type: $mime_type"); //
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename");
echo $data; // the content generated on the fly
exit;
and for the ones retrieved from the database:
$query = "
SELECT name, type, size, content
FROM manuals AS m, manuals_details AS d
WHERE m.id = '$id'
AND m.id = d.id
";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("Bad query: getting file and details." . mysql_error());
list($name, $type, $size, $content) = mysql_fetch_array($result);
header("Content-length: $size");
header("Content-type: $type");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$name");
echo $content;
exit;
For the csv download I tried removing the Content-type header and IE8 asked to save it with the name of the generating script and an html ext. but then gave the same error as above. Opera gave it an html file ext. and both Safari and Chrome saved it with the correct file ext.
With hard-coded Content-type all reverted to the same behaviour as using a variable.
