Re: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window
Miles, Generally when serving PDF type document at my place of work, we serve them using a custom HTTP header: header( content-disposition: inline ); (that's the PHP way to do it). This works for us because we serve most of our documents as BLOBs from the database. If you're not doing that, I'm not sure my help will be any... help. Be careful with this one, it seems to work pretty well in IE, but other browsers ignore it. Then again, other browsers generally behave better with attachments/mime-types in general. Miles Tillinger wrote: Just a question about how other developers handle opening documents e.g. PDF, DOC, in a new window. At the moment I am using _blank targets. Scenario 1: User is using IE with Word configured to open inside the IE window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new IE window opens and the doc is loaded in that window. Scenario 2: User is using IE or another browser, but is configured to open Word doc's in Word, not in the Browser window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new Browser window open and the user either prompted to Save or Open the doc, or may even open the doc in Word automatically if the user has previously selected that option. The problem here is that the user is left with a blank Browser window. So Scenario 1 is how I'd like it to behave in every case, but is this possible? Since I have no way of knowing how the user has their system configured I don't know whether to offer the link with a _blank target or not? Is there an accessible standard way of doing it? Regards, Miles * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ *
RE: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window
I don't suppose we're actually 'serving' the PDF or DOC as such, in that we only link to the file. As we have no control over the header of the file, the user's OS will handle it however it is configured to. Herein lies the problem... -Original Message- From: Bradley Wright [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window Miles, Generally when serving PDF type document at my place of work, we serve them using a custom HTTP header: header( content-disposition: inline ); (that's the PHP way to do it). This works for us because we serve most of our documents as BLOBs from the database. If you're not doing that, I'm not sure my help will be any... help. Be careful with this one, it seems to work pretty well in IE, but other browsers ignore it. Then again, other browsers generally behave better with attachments/mime-types in general. Miles Tillinger wrote: Just a question about how other developers handle opening documents e.g. PDF, DOC, in a new window. At the moment I am using _blank targets. Scenario 1: User is using IE with Word configured to open inside the IE window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new IE window opens and the doc is loaded in that window. Scenario 2: User is using IE or another browser, but is configured to open Word doc's in Word, not in the Browser window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new Browser window open and the user either prompted to Save or Open the doc, or may even open the doc in Word automatically if the user has previously selected that option. The problem here is that the user is left with a blank Browser window. So Scenario 1 is how I'd like it to behave in every case, but is this possible? Since I have no way of knowing how the user has their system configured I don't know whether to offer the link with a _blank target or not? Is there an accessible standard way of doing it? Regards, Miles * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ *
RE: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window
I hope it's not stupid, but how about the ol' Right-click and Save as? I haven't followed this whole post, but I know it annoys the hell out of me when I click a link and it opens up a new window and starts adobe acrobat (in the browser), starts loading the file, and consumes all my system resources... (ooh and the X doesn't work) I believe users really need to gently be guided when it comes to downloading documents, i.e. To download any of the following documents, please click the document to open it in a new browser, or Right Click the link and select Save As to save the document to your machine. my 2 pesetas! -Original Message- From: Miles Tillinger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 12 December 2003 10:44 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window I don't suppose we're actually 'serving' the PDF or DOC as such, in that we only link to the file. As we have no control over the header of the file, the user's OS will handle it however it is configured to. Herein lies the problem... -Original Message- From: Bradley Wright [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window Miles, Generally when serving PDF type document at my place of work, we serve them using a custom HTTP header: header( content-disposition: inline ); (that's the PHP way to do it). This works for us because we serve most of our documents as BLOBs from the database. If you're not doing that, I'm not sure my help will be any... help. Be careful with this one, it seems to work pretty well in IE, but other browsers ignore it. Then again, other browsers generally behave better with attachments/mime-types in general. Miles Tillinger wrote: Just a question about how other developers handle opening documents e.g. PDF, DOC, in a new window. At the moment I am using _blank targets. Scenario 1: User is using IE with Word configured to open inside the IE window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new IE window opens and the doc is loaded in that window. Scenario 2: User is using IE or another browser, but is configured to open Word doc's in Word, not in the Browser window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new Browser window open and the user either prompted to Save or Open the doc, or may even open the doc in Word automatically if the user has previously selected that option. The problem here is that the user is left with a blank Browser window. So Scenario 1 is how I'd like it to behave in every case, but is this possible? Since I have no way of knowing how the user has their system configured I don't know whether to offer the link with a _blank target or not? Is there an accessible standard way of doing it? Regards, Miles * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ *
RE: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window
Any more info on this? Doesn't it work the same as sending proper headers? -Original Message-From: James Ellis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Friday, 12 December 2003 11:04 AMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Re: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank windowIf you are using Apache you could force a download for these file types instead of opening the file. When the user clicks on the link the download box will pop up.This'd be my preference...CheersJamesMiles Tillinger wrote: I don't suppose we're actually 'serving' the PDF or DOC as such, in that we only link to the file. As we have no control over the header of the file, the user's OS will handle it however it is configured to. Herein lies the problem... -Original Message- From: Bradley Wright [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window Miles, Generally when serving PDF type document at my place of work, we serve them using a custom HTTP header: header( "content-disposition: inline" ); (that's the PHP way to do it). This works for us because we serve most of our documents as BLOBs from the database. If you're not doing that, I'm not sure my help will be any... help. Be careful with this one, it seems to work pretty well in IE, but other browsers ignore it. Then again, other browsers generally behave better with attachments/mime-types in general. Miles Tillinger wrote: Just a question about how other developers handle opening documents e.g. PDF, DOC, in a new window. At the moment I am using _blank targets. Scenario 1: User is using IE with Word configured to open inside the IE window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new IE window opens and the doc is loaded in that window. Scenario 2: User is using IE or another browser, but is configured to open Word doc's in Word, not in the Browser window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new Browser window open and the user either prompted to Save or Open the doc, or may even open the doc in Word automatically if the user has previously selected that option. The problem here is that the user is left with a blank Browser window. So Scenario 1 is how I'd like it to behave in every case, but is this possible? Since I have no way of knowing how the user has their system configured I don't know whether to offer the link with a _blank target or not? Is there an accessible standard way of doing it? Regards, Miles * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ *
RE: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window
If you force a user to save the file locally instead of opening it in the manner in which their browser is set up to handle it you're taking away their control of default behaviours. I really recommend against this. Let the browser handle it. If they have only the Acrobat Reader,a PDF will(generally) open within the browser. If they want to set it up differently to open in Acrobat itself, they can change their setup. I have all these types of things set as I want them. I want to open Word and Excel files within the browser. If you force me to save it you're taking my preference away and I get really cranky. Then I have to remember where I saved it and clean it up later, rather than it being a temporary internet file that is purged automatically. Whenever a client asks me to force people to save things I talk them out of it. Just my thoughts. P From: Taco Fleur [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 12:12 PMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: RE: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window Any more info on this? Doesn't it work the same as sending proper headers? -Original Message-From: James Ellis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Friday, 12 December 2003 11:04 AMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Re: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank windowIf you are using Apache you could force a download for these file types instead of opening the file. When the user clicks on the link the download box will pop up.This'd be my preference...CheersJamesMiles Tillinger wrote: I don't suppose we're actually 'serving' the PDF or DOC as such, in that we only link to the file. As we have no control over the header of the file, the user's OS will handle it however it is configured to. Herein lies the problem... -Original Message- From: Bradley Wright [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window Miles, Generally when serving PDF type document at my place of work, we serve them using a custom HTTP header: header( "content-disposition: inline" ); (that's the PHP way to do it). This works for us because we serve most of our documents as BLOBs from the database. If you're not doing that, I'm not sure my help will be any... help. Be careful with this one, it seems to work pretty well in IE, but other browsers ignore it. Then again, other browsers generally behave better with attachments/mime-types in general. Miles Tillinger wrote: Just a question about how other developers handle opening documents e.g. PDF, DOC, in a new window. At the moment I am using _blank targets. Scenario 1: User is using IE with Word configured to open inside the IE window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new IE window opens and the doc is loaded in that window. Scenario 2: User is using IE or another browser, but is configured to open Word doc's in Word, not in the Browser window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new Browser window open and the user either prompted to Save or Open the doc, or may even open the doc in Word automatically if the user has previously selected that option. The problem here is that the user is left with a blank Browser window. So Scenario 1 is how I'd like it to behave in every case, but is this possible? Since I have no way of knowing how the user has their system configured I don't know whether to offer the link with a _blank target or not? Is there an accessible standard way of doing it? Regards, Miles * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ *
RE: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window
If you force a user to save the file locally instead of opening it in the manner in which their browser is set up to handle it you're taking away their control of default behaviours. I really recommend against this. Let the browser handle it. If they have only the Acrobat Reader,a PDF will(generally) open within the browser. If they want to set it up differently to open in Acrobat itself, they can change their setup. --- How many users out there do you know that actually know they can change these settings? Let alone knowhow to change these settings. --- I have all these types of things set as I want them. I want to open Word and Excel files within the browser. If you force me to save it you're taking my preference away and I get really cranky. Then I have to remember where I saved it and clean it up later, rather than it being a temporary internet file that is purged automatically. --- Forcing to save ALSO gives you the option to open, OK it does not open it in your browser, but in the program it was intended to open in the first place (outside your browser).. I think no matter what preferences the user has set in their browser, we should do a bit of thinking for them, who actually has no problems opening up a PDF or word document in their browser? my 2 pesetas
Re: [WSG] OT: Opening documents in _blank window
Hi All, I am a new member and this is my first post. Miles I came across your problem a while back while upgrading my work site, trying everything I was about to give up when Sitepoint.com published an article from Kevin Yank that explained exactly how to open documents in a new window. And it's standards compliant as well! View the article at http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1041 Regards Gino --- Miles Tillinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just a question about how other developers handle opening documents e.g. PDF, DOC, in a new window. At the moment I am using _blank targets. Scenario 1: User is using IE with Word configured to open inside the IE window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new IE window opens and the doc is loaded in that window. Scenario 2: User is using IE or another browser, but is configured to open Word doc's in Word, not in the Browser window. When the user clicks on a link to the Word doc a new Browser window open and the user either prompted to Save or Open the doc, or may even open the doc in Word automatically if the user has previously selected that option. The problem here is that the user is left with a blank Browser window. So Scenario 1 is how I'd like it to behave in every case, but is this possible? Since I have no way of knowing how the user has their system configured I don't know whether to offer the link with a _blank target or not? Is there an accessible standard way of doing it? Regards, Miles * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ * http://personals.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Personals New people, new possibilities. FREE for a limited time. * The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ *
