Download Now window

[samaceb]

Hello all. Quick one: I have a pdf file on-line. I want people to instead of
viewing it from the server
to have but one option, which is to download the .pdf file to their computer.
is there a
javasript that opens that Save to... window?

Thank you.

[Chris In Madison]

If this is indeed what you want to do, then you'll need to do this with
server-side script, forcing the HTML header to octet-stream or similar.
This will prompt the browser to open a Save/Open dialogue. If you're not
sure what I'm talking about, then you're probably better off just linking to
it.

Why does the end user need to download this PDF and not view it? If they've
got Acrobat Reader installed, it has its own Save button and menu item. Why
not let the consumer decide?

Best regards,
Chris

[Manuel Socarras]

if you want the user to download the pdf file through a link, then just
zip it

samaceb wrote:

> Hello all. Quick one: I have a pdf file on-line. I want people to instead of
> viewing it from the server
> to have but one option, which is to download the .pdf file to their computer.
> is there a
> javasript that opens that Save to... window?
>
> Thank you.
>
>

[Julian Roberts]

Have a look for Tom Muck's Force Download extension on the MM exchange.

--
Jules
[url]http://www.charon.co.uk/charoncart[/url]
Charon Cart 3
Shopping Cart Extension for Dreamweaver MX/MX 2004

[samaceb]

The zip file is not an option. My client who I am doing this for, wants to
have his clients download the pdf file to their computer directly .
Reason why is because it is 1.8Mb too slow to view on-line. We've already
gone through the option of a zip and got shot down. Reading it on-line is not
an option.
If I drop the pdf on the server the user's acrobat reader opens it right
away. I have seen a java script
javascript:downloadNow('http://www.') and was wondering if any of you knew the
script it self or how to apply it.

[Chris In Madison]

Well, regardless of whether the user downloads it or opens in Acrobat, a
1.8M file is going to download at the same speed. But if you really need
this to work, check out the extension that Jules recommended. It works
great :-)

Best regards,
Chris

[samaceb]

Would you be so kind as to point me towards that page. I am not too familiar with this forums.
I do thank you all for the speedy help so far.

Take care.

[Chris In Madison]

Here you go :-) Looks like it's only ASP, however.

[url]http://www.tom-muck.com/extensions/help/ForceDownload/[/url]

Best regards,
Chris

[samaceb]

I came across this.

An easy to use force file download script, especially useful for sites that
have large media files
and would like people to download the files locally instead of playing them
remotely off the web server.
Usage: [url]http://www.yoursite.com/force-download.php?file=filepath[/url]

I just can't get it to work , I am using php. My file is mediakit.pdf the
file=filepath is what is getting me.

[Michael Fesser]

.oO(samaceb)

>The zip file is not an option. My client who I am doing this for, wants to
>have his clients download the pdf file to their computer directly .

Zipping might reduce the filesize. In this case I would use it as an
alternative download version.

> Reason why is because it is 1.8Mb too slow to view on-line.

It's slow on download as well. 1.8MB are 1.8MB.

>We've already
>gone through the option of a zip and got shot down. Reading it on-line is not
>an option.

Have you asked all users? Broadband exists, on some networks 1.8MB are
peanuts and loaded in seconds. Additionally there might be PDF plugins
which allow reading while downloading the rest in the background.

> If I drop the pdf on the server the user's acrobat reader opens it right
>away.

If available and enabled. I have the plugin installed, but disabled
(it's unstable and crashes), so I always get the download dialog.

>I have seen a java script

Forget that. It will cause trouble for people with JS disabled or not
available at all. JS should never be used for basic functionally, only
for additional convenience features.

I would simply do it like this:

<a href="document.pdf">title (file size)</a>

And probably a second link to a zipped version if it's smaller than the
unzipped one.

Micha