[Tutor] Problems serving up PDF
Python
python at venix.com
Fri Sep 15 14:25:08 CEST 2006
On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 18:01 -0800, Tim Johnson wrote:
> * Luke Paireepinart <rabidpoobear at gmail.com> [060914 17:37]:
> > >
> > Sounds like it's working to me.
> > > On Internet Explorer 6, Windows XP, the user experience is different.
> > > IE ignores the file name, and does no progress reporting, but does
> > > "understand" the file type.
> > >
> > Sounds like it's working to me.
> >
> >
> > As far as I can tell, it seems to me like you have some file (example .wmv)
> > that I.E. is saying 'okay I know how to open this' and it tries to do
> > something with it.
> > Firefox, humble as it is, admits that it doesn't know what to do and
> > just lets you download it.
> > If this is the case, then it's a configuration issue with IE that's
> > making it attempt to open the file.
> > You could just as well configure Firefox to automatically open these
> > files too, although
> > that doesn't mean that it'll work :)
> >
> > So unless you can be more specific, I'd say that it's just a difference
> > in the browser and not a problem
> > with your code at all. Do I not understand correctly?
> > HTH,
>
> Hey Luke:
> I also posted this to a forum:
> One expert response reads like this:
>
> "I think that's just the way Mozilla acts."
>
> Actually, I like the way Firefox does it. Looks like we just live
> with the differences.
> thanks again
> tim
There is a Firefox extension called TamperData that allows you to
examine and change the headers. This extension is very handy for
debugging these kinds of issues. My Apache web server returns these
headers when I request a pdf file:
Status=OK - 200
Date=Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:03:37 GMT
Server=Apache/2.0.53 (Fedora)
Last-Modified=Tue, 06 Jun 2006 16:50:30 GMT
Etag="68061-6a29d-c70c180"
Accept-Ranges=bytes
Content-Length=434845
Connection=close
Content-Type=application/pdf
X-Pad=avoid browser bug
The last two should be of interest to you. I did not try to google X-
Pad or "avoid browser bug", but google might provide more background.
In any case, Tamper Data allows you to see what a working web site does
to succeed. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
--
Lloyd Kvam
Venix Corp
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