AI file saved from a website + Internet Explorer

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

AI files saved from a website get saved as PS files using Internet Explorer
browser. This does not happen using Mozilla browsers. Any idea why this is
the case?

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

Also...the Mozilla Firefox download manager reports that the file is a
Postscript file, but does save it as file with a .AI extension. Internet
Explorer 6 also reports that it's a Postscript file and saves it with a .PS
extension.

I wondering if this is my browser setting or if this is going to happen with
anyone who tries to save this file using IE.

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

R Rose,

It is IE being overly 'helpful". When IE comes up against a file with no
known MIME type, it examines the content to try and determine what it is,
wrongly in the case of .ai files, and assigns what IT considers the correct
file extension.

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Rrose,

This happens because there is no specific MIME type for AI documents. AI, EPS, and PS extensions are mapped to the "application/postscript" MIME type. I suppose this came about because before the "native" AI format was changed to be more PDF-based, it was more EPS-based.

Different browsers deal with mapped extensions in different ways. Just rename the .ps extension to .ai, and you should be fine.

References:

<http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/XMosaic/extension-map.html>

<http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/1521/index.htm>

=-= Harron =-=

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Len and Harron. So I guess I should add a little note on the site
for the download user to rename the .ps extension to .ai.

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Rrose,

You could. A better solution might be to compress your AI files into a ZIP archive before posting them at your site. This will have the added benefits of (a) protecting against potential file corruption during download, and (b) permitting multiple related files (including, for example, help files) to be downloaded in a single operation.

This will require that your downloaders have a decompression utility on their machine, but that's a fairly common scenario these days because so many downloadable files and attachments are archived.

=-= Harron =-=

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

> You could. A better solution might be to compress your AI files into a ZIP
archive before posting them at your site.

Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Thanks!