Why do some PDFs open in browser, while others get downloaded?
Bert Hyman
Firefox 3.6.8
Adobe Acrobat 9.3.3
When accessing a PDF via a URL in the normal way, sometimes they open in
a new tab (as expected), but sometimes a blank tab labeled "(Untitled)
will open and the Dowloads window will pop up showing that the file's
been saved to my download directory.
The two tests here
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Adobe_Reader#Enabling_the_browser_plugin
both show in the browser.
This file, for example
gets downloaded and saved.
What factors cause this different behavior?
--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN be...@iphouse.com
John Thompson
Alex K.
mozillazine article:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/acro7_matrix.pdf
contain the correct Content-Type headers (application/pdf), the
difference is a header called 'content-disposition'.
The medica.com URL contains just such a header:
content-disposition: attachement filename=x.pdf
Since it is designated as an attachment (even though it's misspelled),
it gets saved and opened with Adobe Reader, rather than in the browser.
The adobe.com URL contains no such header, so it is opened in the
browser, unless a user has configured FF otherwise.
For the curious, I used web-sniffer.net to obtain the response headers
from the various sites.
I know there is an extension available, that would produce the same
information,
Live HTTP Headers 0.16
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3829/
but I wouldn't use it enough to justify installing it, and
web-sniffer.net is just as easy for me to use, when I might happen to
need it.
For others, though, the extension might be more convenient.
Hope this helps.
--
Alex K.
gabor
> On 8/21/2010 10:50 AM, Bert Hyman wrote:
>
> > Windows XP Pro SP3
> > Firefox 3.6.8
> > Adobe Acrobat 9.3.3
>
> > When accessing a PDF via a URL in the normal way, sometimes they open in
> > a new tab (as expected), but sometimes a blank tab labeled "(Untitled)
> > will open and the Dowloads window will pop up showing that the file's
> > been saved to my download directory.
>
> > The two tests here
>
> >http://kb.mozillazine.org/Adobe_Reader#Enabling_the_browser_plugin
>
> > both show in the browser.
>
> > This file, for example
>
>
> >http://tinyurl.com/36lkk7p
>
> > gets downloaded and saved.
>
> > What factors cause this different behavior?
>
> While both the medica URL you cite above, and the first test URL at the
> mozillazine article:
>
> http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/acro7_matrix.pdf
>
> contain the correct Content-Type headers (application/pdf), the
> difference is a header called 'content-disposition'.
>
> The medica.com URL contains just such a header:
>
> content-disposition: attachement filename=x.pdf
>
> Since it is designated as an attachment (even though it's misspelled),
> it gets saved and opened with Adobe Reader, rather than in the browser.
>
> The adobe.com URL contains no such header, so it is opened in the
> browser, unless a user has configured FF otherwise.
>
> For the curious, I used web-sniffer.net to obtain the response headers
> from the various sites.
>
> I know there is an extension available, that would produce the same
> information,
>
>
> but I wouldn't use it enough to justify installing it, and
> web-sniffer.net is just as easy for me to use, when I might happen to
> need it.
>
> For others, though, the extension might be more convenient.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> --
> Alex K.
Getting back to the original intent of the question, is there a way to
force
acrobat documents to open in the plug-in rather than saving and
opening
directly in the Acrobat application? i.e. can the browser control
this
functionality or is it somehow forced by the website and / or Adobe?
Regards,
Gabor
Greywolf
[...]
> Getting back to the original intent of the question, is there a way to
> force
> acrobat documents to open in the plug-in rather than saving and
> opening
> directly in the Acrobat application? i.e. can the browser control
> this
> functionality or is it somehow forced by the website and / or Adobe?
>
> Regards,
> Gabor
The browser does what the website tells it to do. That's the
purpose/function of a browser. After all, the website designer wants you
to see what they've designed the website to show to you. FF add-ons can
change that behaviour, eg, NoScript by default prevents JavaScript from
running, and enables you to allow scripts selected by you to run.
You could write an add-on specifically to ignore/reinterpret "content
disposition" with reference to PDFs. There may be others who want what
you want.
HTH
wolf k.
Tarkus
> Getting back to the original intent of the question, is there a way
> to force acrobat documents to open in the plug-in rather than saving
> and opening directly in the Acrobat application? i.e. can the
> browser control this functionality or is it somehow forced by the
> website and / or Adobe?
The MIME Edit extension may do what you want. I've not tried it for PDF
files, but it's worked splendidly for me for other file types.
http://space.geocities.yahoo.co.jp/gl/alice0775/view/20080912/1221150790
Don't be put off by the foreign characters. The extension is in
English. Just grab the third link, for FF up to 3.7.*.
Once installed, try adding application/pdf and set the defaults how you
want.
HTH.
»Q«
Tarkus <karn...@atlantabraves.net> wrote:
And in this case (the medica.com pdf), it might also help to either
remove the Content-Disposition header or replace it with
Content-Disposition: inline
--
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»Q«
Greywolf <wek...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> The browser does what the website tells it to do. That's the
> purpose/function of a browser. After all, the website designer wants
> you to see what they've designed the website to show to you.
Usually, that's right. In this case, the web author screwed up the
disposition header (as Alex K. pointed out), and when Fx encounters
garbage it falls back to the default for binary stuff, which is to
download instead of trying to display in the browser.
Bert Hyman
=?UTF-8?B?wrtRwqs=?= <box...@gmx.net> wrote:
> In <news:qKudnVCDz_ug3-zR...@mozilla.org>,
> Greywolf <wek...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
>> The browser does what the website tells it to do. That's the
>> purpose/function of a browser. After all, the website designer wants
>> you to see what they've designed the website to show to you.
>
> Usually, that's right. In this case, the web author screwed up the
> disposition header (as Alex K. pointed out), and when Fx encounters
> garbage it falls back to the default for binary stuff, which is to
> download instead of trying to display in the browser.
Thanks to everybody for the information.
I thought briefly about whining to the Web admin at the site I
mentioned, but it's probably pointless. Besides, the same thing happens
at lots of other sites, and I have better (or at least other) things to
do.
Tarkus
> Thanks to everybody for the information.
>
> I thought briefly about whining to the Web admin at the site I
> mentioned, but it's probably pointless. Besides, the same thing happens
> at lots of other sites, and I have better (or at least other) things to
> do.
The MIME Edit extension I suggested works globally. You don't have to
worry about other sites, once you've set it up.