PDF display in browsers of some IE users

["Zahigian, Mike" <mi...@amgen.com>]

I have embedded FOP in a servlet and am returning a pdf supplying a MIME
type of application/pdf.  I now have a few users (IE) for whom the pdf
doesn't display.  One of the users browsers opens up a new browser window
(as it's supposed to) and we see the Acrobat logo come and go and then the
browser window is left blank.  Interestingly, you can't view source on the
browser window that is popped up to display the pdf.  I've written about
another user who can't display the pdf and gets a warning that the file does
not begin with %PDF.

Does anyone have any ideas?  The problem users all seem to be using IE 5.5x.
They are a mixed bag of Acrobat 4.0 and 5.0.

Mike Zahigian, Sr. Programmer/Systems Analyst
Amgen
Business Information Systems
(805) 447-2819
mailto:michaelz@amgen.com

Re: PDF display in browsers of some IE users

[Chuck Paussa <Ch...@systems.dhl.com>]

Mike,

IE, because it is based in MSWindows, believes that file extensions are 
king. There are a bunch of detailed explainations in the archives on the 
cause and intricate solutions to this problem. Most solutions point to 
the simple fix of;

<a 
href="yourserver.com/yourpath/FOPservlet&fo='yourfo.fo'?dummy='a.pdf">Link 
text</a>

IE will see the .pdf at the end of the url and prepare itself to receive 
a pdf.

Chuck Paussa

Zahigian, Mike wrote:

>I have embedded FOP in a servlet and am returning a pdf supplying a MIME
>type of application/pdf.  I now have a few users (IE) for whom the pdf
>doesn't display.  One of the users browsers opens up a new browser window
>(as it's supposed to) and we see the Acrobat logo come and go and then the
>browser window is left blank.  Interestingly, you can't view source on the
>browser window that is popped up to display the pdf.  I've written about
>another user who can't display the pdf and gets a warning that the file does
>not begin with %PDF.
>
>Does anyone have any ideas?  The problem users all seem to be using IE 5.5x.
>They are a mixed bag of Acrobat 4.0 and 5.0.
>
>Mike Zahigian, Sr. Programmer/Systems Analyst
>Amgen
>Business Information Systems
>(805) 447-2819
>mailto:michaelz@amgen.com
>
>  
>

Re: PDF display in browsers of some IE users

[Bertrand Delacretaz <bd...@codeconsult.ch>]

These Internet Explorer mime type handling problems are described in:

Microsoft KnowledgeBase article Q293336
INFO: WebCast: MIME Type Handling in Microsoft Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q293/3/36.asp

Or search for "Q293336" at www.microsoft.com/search

-- 
 Bertrand Delacrétaz (codeconsult.ch, jfor.org)

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