[lug] CGI Generated PDFs and MS Explorer 5.5 Problems...

[George Sexton]

One thing that I can tell you from experience is that IE 5.5 ( and I assume
lower) looks more intently upon the URL extension than the mime type.

For example:

Url: http://www.mycompany.com/x/x/file.asp

that sets the mime type to be application/excel

will not work. You have to have the file name be file.xls

The work-around is to create the file in a directory and re-direct the browser
to a URL with the correct extension. Yet another example of MS not following
the RFCs.


Ryan Kirkpatrick wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Mar 2001, D. Stimits wrote:
>
> > First thing I would have to wonder is if people upgraded IE without
> > upgrading the pdf ActiveX component. There is a possibility that the pdf
> > component also needs a matching upgrade (whether or not such an upgrade
> > exists).
>
>         Hmm... That is an interesting idea... I have Win98 with IE5.5
> using as a test system (actually is a VMware system :), and I just
> upgraded it using Windows Update.
>
> > In the code below, I also wonder if something happened where it now
> > fails to interpret the "\n" notation, now requiring the Windowsism of
> > "\r\n". Where you have:
> > > print "Content-Length: $bytes\n",
> > >       "Content-Type: application/pdf\n\n";
> > Try making each \n as \r\n.
> >
> > The reason I grasp at something so silly and improbable is that you said
> > the two were identical. What remains are the non-printing characters,
> > such as newlines.
>
>         Good idea, but unfortunetly it does not work... After modifying
> both my test script and the full CGI script to use \r\n as the line
> terminator, I am still getting the exact same behavior.
>
> <...Pause as I download the newest Win98 Acrobat reader and install it...>
>
> Well, Adobe had a new a version (4.05c vs old 4.05), but it did not help
> the situation anyway. Guess I am going to have to implement Michael's
> suggestion of serving static pages. Thanks for everyone's help
> anyway. TTYL.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> |   "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."                    |
> |                                            --- Philippians 1:21 (KJV)   |
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> |   Ryan Kirkpatrick  |  Boulder, Colorado  |  http://www.rkirkpat.net/   |
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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