File download in IE7 (and Safari)

I reproduced the behaviours you describe to a tee. Clearly this is psycho browser behaviour that will need to be worked around.

I'll take a look at the left click download code and see if we can't provide IE7 with some alternatives. (Very tempted to do a: IF IE7 THEN popup 'download firefox now!')

Yes - same problem here. I have not tried the file names corruption but the downloading is definitely BIIIIG issue. Thank you!

I would agree that this is an issue that can cause some users pain, especially if they are not familiar with all the quirks of IE. I would appreciate a fix on this downloading matter. I wish I could fix it, but this stuff is way over my head. Thanks for all the hard work so far, this little program is very useful.

I checked out the demo site (2.12) on xp & IE7 but couldn't replicate the issue. The initial download did trigger the pop-up blocker but after approving downloads I was able to download any file. As for the mangling of utf8 by IE I haven't got any suggestions. As I've oft repeated - IE is crap. I have no patience for people who have no patience for downloading and installing the better browser.

True. But problem is that I cannot install Firefox on client's machines - and IE is usually what they have. As you wrote it is possible to download on second attempt from right click menu, but left click still just opens and closes window doing nothing. PDF, and images seem to be an exception, everything else which should open the save dialog as FF does, seem to just flash new IE window.

Frustrating, but our stats shows IE still at 64% and I am sure my FF is still causing lots of inaccuracy ...

Thanks,

M*

A few ideas about the file name mangling:

1. I wonder if the transliteration module might be helpful here?
http://drupal.org/project/transliteration

2. Does the problem still occur if you switch to a default them like bluemarine or Garland?

3. Does your theme include the Content-Type declaration?
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

See also:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html

Hope this helps!

I have tried Safari for windows today (will try Mac too) and the behavior is the same - it does not flash the window, though.

Milos

I dont use or like IE7 as well, but if author of this module has the same feeling about IE7 and its users, it seems to me, that we have no chance to get it fixed :( :)

There is always of chance of getting it fixed. Just maybe not as quickly as some may like. My personal priority is a re-write of webfm js for Drupal 6 - which may have a side effect of better browser support - but IE(6,7,8) 'prefection' go to the back of the line. However, I will try and keep in mind more graceful degradation for IE users. But, if people want to improve IE support sooner they will need to start contributing patches.

I know an improvement in Opera support has come down the pipe as a result of a contributed patch.

andre

Look at lines 1632-1686 in webfm.js. it would be interesting to compare way it is downloaded via the right click menu (sometimes working) and the direct click on the file....

I am trying to figure out the multi file upload via java postlet, but strugling a bit :-)

-------------------------

Updated ... it will start somehow working when you replace window.open(url) with window.location=url

// Not an image - launch file in new browser instance
if(!sent) {
// window.open (url);
window.location= url;
}

Seems like opening new window and trying to download file is double security NONO for IE. Disadvantage is opening PDFs and other documents which IE knows in the same window.

On line 1679 of ver 1.2.2.48 of webfm.js there was a missing semi-colon. Not sure if this fixes the issue but the semi-colon is now in DRUPAL-5 head. I would appreciate it if others could test if this solves the issue (it never appeared broken on my test sites).

No problem for me, however latest version I can download is 1.2.2.47.

I think the Issue with IE and Safari is the pop out of new browser on line 1705. I suggest to change it to the same as on 1680 to window.location = url;

I was not able to figure out how to open it in the new window without using the javascript method. If anybody finds out how to make it work using similar way like in regular <a href="" target="_blank">that would be smashing :-)

I would honestly like to make it work on other browsers than Firefox...

I can confirm that this edit (in #15) fixed it for me as well.

Just a stab- has anyone suggested holding down the Control key while trying a download? That's IE7's new thing...

I am setting up a file repostiry for my company. Files include jpg's, pdf's and html files. I need for the users to download these files to their "mydocs" foder. Is there a way to force the download of a file instead of viewing it in the browser?

I believe the correct way to resolve this problem is to explicitly tell IE that the file to be downloaded is an "Attachment". In the /modules/upload/upload.module, I modified the following:

Change line 256 to read:
file_transfer($file->filepath, array('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0','Content-Description: File Transfer', 'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\''. $file->filename .'\'','Content-Type: '. mime_header_encode($file->filemime), 'Content-Length: '. $file->filesize));

Change line 269 to read:
return array(
'Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0',
'Content-Description: File Transfer',
'Content-Type: '. $type,
'Content-Length: '. $file->filesize,
);

This works for me. I've applied this fix to 3 versions of Drupal now. This should probably be resolved, one would think. If this looks like the correct fix to everyone, I'll create a patch.

For #19 - I sent you a mail on this...I can't find the right lines you're trying to replace for this module - could you specify those?

Another thing to try...this worked for me across the board! I think its a cache issue.

1) Open up your include/bootstrap.inc file
2) Search for the following line: header("Cache-Control: store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
3) Comment it out! (use a // in front of it)

In Drupal 5.x, its around line 533. This is not a great fix, but it worked for me and was quick!

----------
www.daleeman.com

#22 didn't work for me...still get the same quick new window / alert sound / window closed behavior. Thanks though...any other ideas? I'm running 6.4 and getting this behavior for IE7.

OK. With the financial support of a user I've re-engaged with the project and overcome this issue. Look for a stable 6.x release very soon. One hoop that IE7 users will have to jump through however is enabling "Automatic Prompting for File Downloads" in their zone settings (Tools-> Internet Options-> Security-> Custom level-> Downloads-> Automatic Prompting for File Downloads).