[thelist] Forcing IE to download a file rather than displaying it?

Kris Hedstrom webdev at komputerart.com
Sat Dec 29 16:11:43 CST 2001


I wrote this php function awhile back to force downloads. I don't know if
you're using php or not, but it might be helpful.

  function download($path)

           global $HTTP_USER_AGENT;
           $file=basename($path);
           $size = filesize($path);
           header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
           header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
           header("Content-Length: $size");
           // IE5.5 just downloads index.php if we don't do this
           if(preg_match("/MSIE 5.5/", $HTTP_USER_AGENT))

                   header("Content-Disposition: filename=$file");
           } else

                   header("Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename=$file");
           }
           header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
           $fh = fopen($path, "r");
           fpassthru($fh);
   }

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Haroche <bharoche at usa.net>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2001 11:44 PM
Subject: [thelist] Forcing IE to download a file rather than displaying it?


> I need to create a web space where my client can upload Word (.doc) files
> and Acrobat (.pdf) files. When the user clicks on a file link, it should
> force the browser to respond with a "save file" dialog box.
>
> Obviously, this is simple if the files are first zipped/stuffed, but
reasons
> not relevant here that's not an option.
>
> The domain is virtually hosted on unix/Apache 1.3.6. I've played around
with
> .htaccess to over-ride the mime type for these files such as:
>
> AddType application/octet-stream .doc
>
> While this works for Netscape, Internet Explorer 6 PC (and I assume
earlier
> versions as well) insist on still opening the Word documents inside the
> browser.
>
> Is there any way, other than zipping/stuffing to over-ride this behavior
and
> force a "save as..." prompt?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Regards,
> Bob Haroche
> O n P o i n t  S o l u t i o n s
> http://www.OnPointSolutions.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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