Is there a way to force a downlaod otion?

Hello

My boss asked me this question: is there a way to force a link (PDF in this case) to open the dialog box for an option of save to file or open?

Thanks
Rob

Zip it. Or use a force download script.


--Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
www.alt-web.com



"BOC_RUSH" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Hello

My boss asked me this question: is there a way to force a link (PDF in
this case) to open the dialog box for an option of save to file or open?

Thanks
Rob

Zip the PDF file to force a download


"BOC_RUSH" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Hello

My boss asked me this question: is there a way to force a link (PDF in
this case) to open the dialog box for an option of save to file or open?

Thanks
Rob

..oO(BOC_RUSH)

My boss asked me this question: is there a way to force a link (PDF in
this case) to open the dialog box for an option of save to file or open?

In addition to the other replies: May I ask why you want that?

Micha

Zip the PDF file to force a download

But please don't, as that's annoying and pretty much pointless.

Bosses ask these types of questions because they don't know how to use
computers.

If you MUST do this to accomodate the boss, consider providing two options:

viewPDF.pdf
downloadPDFasZIP.zip

Alternatively, you can stream the PDF to the browser from the server with
server-side scripting. A bit more laborious to set up, though.

-Darrel

In addition to the other replies: May I ask why you want that?

"My boss"

;o)

-Darrel

My boss is asking for it... no other reason - I think we are to get a totally different PDF now.. so of course it'll be a moot issue :-)


thanks all

R

My boss is asking for it... no other reason

If you are willing, you could educate your boss a bit and explain that PDFs
are a 3rd party file format...not a native web format. As such, they are
interacted with outside of the default settings of common web browsers. This
means that the default behavior of a link to a PDF is going to be different
on everyone's own machine and based on things like user preferences,
installed plug-ins, installed browser extensions and installed 3rd-party PDF
viewing applications.

Any link can be downloaded via right-clicking a link in any browser (well,
except maybe the iPhone...can you 'right click' on the iPhone?)

Using a ZIP file can fix the 'force a download' request, but usually those
types of requests that come from people that don't really know how to use a
computer, so you're gambling that they'll know what to do with a ZIP file.

-Darrel

if yur page is asp then this is a good extension.

just point it towards the pdf and it will force its download

http://www.tom-muck.com/extensions/help/ForceDownload/

k

Using a ZIP file can fix the 'force a download' request,

And that's not even true in all cases. I've got some PC's with browser add ins
that open .zip files - so you still won't get a standard Save dialog.