Anchor. Open file. Is this possible?

[shapper]

Hello,

I have an anchor (<a>) to a PDF file.
Is there any way that when the user clicks the link the file is saved
instead of opened by the browser?

Thanks,
Miguel

 

[Ari Heino]

shapper kirjoitti seuraavasti:

Hello,

I have an anchor (<a>) to a PDF file.
Is there any way that when the user clicks the link the file is saved
instead of opened by the browser?

Thanks,
Miguel

Ultimately, no. It depends from eg. the user's configuration. This issue
was covered not long ago.
The user can always right-click it and save (or you can advice to do so).

 

[Sherm Pendley]

I have an anchor (<a>) to a PDF file.
Is there any way that when the user clicks the link the file is saved
instead of opened by the browser?

Sure - just right-click and choose "save as."

sherm--

 

[shapper]

Sure - just right-click and choose "save as."

sherm--

 

[shapper]

Ultimately, no. It depends from eg. the user's configuration. This issue

was covered not long ago.

Yes, that was what I thought ... Just wanted to confirm.

The user can always right-click it and save (or you can advice to do so).

Yes, I know. I will add the advice. Thanks for the tip.

Cheers,
Miguel

 

[richard]

Hello,

I have an anchor (<a>) to a PDF file.
Is there any way that when the user clicks the link the file is saved
instead of opened by the browser?

Thanks,
Miguel

Is that so you can download a virus along with it?
You're not gonna tell me I must download it. No way.

 

[Roy A.]

Hello,

I have an anchor (<a>) to a PDF file.
Is there any way that when the user clicks the link the file is saved
instead of opened by the browser?

You have to serve it with a MIME type other than "application/pdf". I
think "application/octet-stream" is the one to use, e.g.:

<?php
header('Content-type: application/octet-stream');
readfile('original.pdf');
?>

You should also be able, if all browser vendors could read
spesifications, to use Content-Disposition:
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec19.html#sec19.5.1

In php it would be something like "Example #1 Download dialog",
http://us.php.net/en/header:

<?php
// We'll be outputting a PDF
header('Content-type: application/pdf');

// It will be called downloaded.pdf
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="downloaded.pdf"');

// The PDF source is in original.pdf
readfile('original.pdf');
?>

These things have to be done on a http-server like Apache or in a
server side script like PHP.

I don't know, but I think Chrome might show pdf files even if there is
no pdf readers installed on the computer. In that case I think some
users might get lost if you only offer them to "open/download" pdf
files. You might want to have two links. One regular link to the pdf
file, and one "open/download" link. Then the user can choose if you
want to view the file in the browser or in a real pdf reader.

You might get a better answer in a web server or server side script
group.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

shapper wrote:

I have an anchor (<a>) to a PDF file.
Is there any way that when the user clicks the link the file is saved
instead of opened by the browser?

Why do you care? From the perspective of your server

"load in browser" == download

It is difficult to "force" anything on a use, but your can encourage
download where the link uses a server-side script to set HTTP headers to
content-disposition: attachment

 

[dorayme]

Hello,

I have an anchor (<a>) to a PDF file.
Is there any way that when the user clicks the link the file is saved
instead of opened by the browser?

You *could* do this if you want to control such a thing:

<http://dorayme.890m.com/alt/text.pdf.zip>

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed shapper <[email protected]>
writing in

Yes, that was what I thought ... Just wanted to confirm.


Yes, I know. I will add the advice. Thanks for the tip.

And I would add to include the size of the file as well. For a very
small PDF I might let my browser open it, but for a long technical
manual sort of thing, I would probably want to save it somewhere and
read it at my leisure.