HTTP Headers to make a download

[Michael Foord]

I'm creating a CGI that offers files for download. After googling I
though I had the right headers to send to force a download - but it
sends the data to the browser instead of opening the download 'save
file' dialog. Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong/suggest an
alternative ?

responseline = '''Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=%s
Content-Length: %s
'''

print responseline % (filename, len(filedata))
print filedata
TIA

Fuzzy

http://www.voidspace.org.uk/atlantib...thonutils.html

[Michael Fuhr]

fu******@gmail.com (Michael Foord) writes:

I'm creating a CGI that offers files for download. After googling I
though I had the right headers to send to force a download - but it
sends the data to the browser instead of opening the download 'save
file' dialog. Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong/suggest an
alternative ?

responseline = '''Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=%s
Content-Length: %s
'''

print responseline % (filename, len(filedata))
print filedata

What browser and platform are you using? Not all browsers honor
Content-Disposition -- some base their display-or-download decision
on the content itself. For example, using Opera 7.54 on FreeBSD
and your example code, this string displays in the browser:

filedata = 'What hath Guido wrought?'

Whereas this string, different only in the first character, caused
the browser to present a download popup:

filedata = '\xbfWhat hath Guido wrought?'

In the first case, where the browser displayed the data, clicking
"Save" or "File->Save As" did use the file name that was in the
Content-Disposition header.

--
Michael Fuhr
http://www.fuhr.org/~mfuhr/

[Michael Foord]

mf***@fuhr.org (Michael Fuhr) wrote in message news:<41**********@omega.dimensional.com>...

fu******@gmail.com (Michael Foord) writes:

I'm creating a CGI that offers files for download. After googling I
though I had the right headers to send to force a download - but it
sends the data to the browser instead of opening the download 'save
file' dialog. Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong/suggest an
alternative ?

responseline = '''Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=%s
Content-Length: %s
'''

print responseline % (filename, len(filedata))
print filedata

What browser and platform are you using? Not all browsers honor
Content-Disposition -- some base their display-or-download decision
on the content itself. For example, using Opera 7.54 on FreeBSD
and your example code, this string displays in the browser:

filedata = 'What hath Guido wrought?'

Whereas this string, different only in the first character, caused
the browser to present a download popup:

filedata = '\xbfWhat hath Guido wrought?'

In the first case, where the browser displayed the data, clicking
"Save" or "File->Save As" did use the file name that was in the
Content-Disposition header.

My test was with IE 6 (I think ? - the default XP one anyway) and
sending a zipfile - so binary data.

Hmmm.......

'Save Target As' ought to work... but I'd rather be able to let the
browser know it's expecting a download.
(I ought to test that 'save target' *does* work properly...)

Regards,
Fuzzy

http://www.voidspace.org.uk/atlantib...thonutils.html