Downloading files issue

Post by **The Robman** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:52 pm

OK, I tried changing it and it broke the routine, so I changed it back and the routine is still broken, so the File Section is "out of order" until I can find the time to find a backup copy of the routine.

Post by **ElizabethD** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:08 pm

The Robman wrote:Also, I can't test the change because the DOWNLOAD button works for me without me needing to use "Save Target As".

e34m5 wrote:What get's me is why only this file. All others I tried work fine.

I often have to do Save Target As. More often than not actually. But it is NOT one file. It's many and I don't see a pattern. So i thought I'll just pitch in to Paul's suggestion for instruction to ignore the word 'download' and do Save Target As always. If Rob can't fix it. But I suspect he'll find a way.

And, with at least KM files, the issue is dropped carriage returns. I think line feeds stay behind. Might be the other way around, I checked that looong ago, can't remember which.

Post by **The Robman** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 10:36 pm

Well, the download button works again, at least, if you use the "Save Target As" option. Hopefully, it still works with Firefox, etc.

I will try and improve the button at some point, but not tonight!

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:51 am

I've read a few "fixes" on the internet for this download problem but also a few articles that say that there isn't a perfect fix for all browsers. Mainly it seems that IE breaks with agreed convention in that it should download a file as per the file extension but, instead, gets clever and reads the file and downloads or displays it the way it thinks it ought to. So you might even manage to fix it for now but MS will move those goalposts again in the next update of the browser.

My advice (for what it's worth) -

1]Your server ain't broke so don't fix it; just put some advice in the NOTICE section at the beginning of the file download pages to use "Save Target As..." and also put it in the "Read This First..." sticky

2]Saving the text files as .zip files would probably work (haven't tested them all but any that I have opened as .zip files have worked fine when the text file has been extracted from it). This adds a little incovneniece to the user if they don't have the appropriate software to unzip it but it's not a major problem for most, though.

Personally, I'd go with option 1] as upsetting the least number of people.

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:58 pm

I've found an MS bulletin that seems to imply that this is a known bug in MSIE, and it's fixable by downloading a service pack. I know that I don't have this problem downloading files at work, so I'm guessing that we have the service pack installed. I will try installing it myself at home (where I do have the problem) and report back.

Here's the bulletin...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/267991

And you can download MSIE from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:27 pm

The version of MSIE that I have at work is 5.50 and the one I have at home is 6.0, yet it's the home version that has the download problem.

Anyway, I just tried changing the Content-Type and the downloads now appear to be working on my MSIE 6.0. Could you guys check to see if you can download now without needing to do "Save Target As", especially if you have a different version of MSIE.

Mark Pierson · Post by **Mark Pierson** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:07 pm

The Robman wrote:Anyway, I just tried changing the Content-Type and the downloads now appear to be working on my MSIE 6.0. Could you guys check to see if you can download now without needing to do "Save Target As", especially if you have a different version of MSIE.

I have IE 6.0 SP2 and just tried. I get prompted to Open or Save the file, and choosing either results in a properly formatted file.

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:03 pm

Thanks Mark, that's the same version that I have. I'll be able to report on 5.50 tomorrow, unless someone else beats me to it. Is anyone still using 5.0 or 4.0 ?

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 1:30 am

Not all KM files by any means appear to be problematic but - for testing purposes - here are a couple of files that I see have caused download issues:

this one
this one too

(It occurred to me that I should have put links to my own files to boost my download ratings and make them appear real popular but that would be cheating

)

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:18 am

Both of those d/l OK for me now, how about for you?

Mark Pierson · Post by **Mark Pierson** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 8:26 am

The Robman wrote:Both of those d/l OK for me...

Same here.

Post by **The Robman** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 8:40 am

Just confirmed using my work browser, which is 5.50 (SP2) and both files d/l OK here. I also checked that Firefox still works, and it does.

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 9:38 am

Working OK at work running Win2000 Professional and IE 6.0.2800.1106CO. Option to save works and Open results in it opening in Notepad. Can't try out the files at work on this machine nor even save them to disk but they look fine. Will try later at home WinXP, SP2, IE 6.xxx etc.)

Mark Pierson · Post by **Mark Pierson** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 3:42 pm

underquark wrote:Open results in it opening in Notepad

Which means KM's IMPORT feature works again! It really irked me that the file format was preventing that...

underquark · Post by **underquark** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 4:19 pm

Well, you'd kinda hope that the KM import feature would work seeing as the upgrades in question are KM exports to begin with but yea, it works on my homw machine now (didn't before) - i.e WinXP, SP2, IE 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_rtm.040803-2158.

Put this thread to bed now?