Re: opening a client application from a server?

ccc31807 <cartercc@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
jue, thanks for your comments.

On May 7, 8:46 pm, Jürgen Exner <jurge...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
No, it's not an Apache problem, either. It's an HTTP problem.

This is what I can't understand. I import a big glob of data from a
database into my script, generate many csv files, or txt files, or pdf
files, or xml file, etc., and generate links. The browsers, IE but FF
as well will happily open a csv file in Excel (assuming that the
client is a Windows machine with Office installed), open a pdf file in
Acrobat, open a txt file in the browser window, and so on.

Which IMNSHO is a major mistake of the browser. The browser should never
assume a file type based on the last 3 characters of a file name.

I ASSUMED(!) that a doc file would work the same way, that is, open
natively in Word on a machine running Office. It doesn't, and I don't
know enough to understand why it doesn't.

Has nothing to do with Windows but everything with how HTTP works.
So, what Content-Type did you try?

I didn't. When I produce csv, pdf, etc., I don't specify any Content-
Type. I just create the files and they open the way they should. XML
is very picky, and Word demands a PERFECT(!) XML file to open,
otherwise it throws an error, and I suspect that an attempt to
incorporate a Content-Type element in the XML would create a problem.

You don't incorporate it into the XML, you set the Content-Type in the
HTTP response header just as Tad explained already.
And no, it really has nothing to do with Perl.

Besides, I don't understand why a Content-Type is necessary.

Because it tells the browser what to do with that particular HTTP
response.

jue
.

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