BrowserUk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

If I follow this link, my browsers -- I've tried 3 -- want to download the file and display it in some other application rather than just displaying it. It only happens on some sites.

Why? And how can I bypass it?

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
I'm with torvalds on this Agile (and TDD) debunked I told'em LLVM was the way to go. But did they listen!
  • Comment on [OT] How to prevent my browser trying to download instead of display?

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Re: [OT] How to prevent my browser trying to download instead of display?
by derby (Abbot) on Jun 19, 2015 at 14:56 UTC

    with a content-type of text/x-chdr I'm guessing most browsers don't know how to handle that type and do the sane option of downloading.

    -derby
[reply]
      with a content-type of text/x-chdr

      Thanks derby. With that salient piece of information, it was trivial to tell both versions of Opera I use to just display the file.

      I can't find a similar option in Firefox; but I only use that as a last resort anyway.

      With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
      I'm with torvalds on this Agile (and TDD) debunked I told'em LLVM was the way to go. But did they listen!
[reply]
[reply]
Re: [OT] How to prevent my browser trying to download instead of display?
by Athanasius (Archbishop) on Jun 19, 2015 at 14:43 UTC

    Hello BrowserUk,

    I get the same behaviour in Firefox (no idea why). But Google Chrome displays the page fine for me, with no attempt to download it or use another application.

    Hope that helps,

    Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,

[reply]
Re: [OT] How to prevent my browser trying to download instead of display?
by VinsWorldcom (Prior) on Jun 19, 2015 at 15:00 UTC

    You're on Windows IIRC? Otherwise my advice will make little sense.

    Could it be an ftype/assoc issue? If the file type is associated with another program, the browser(s) may be using that as a hint for how to open / display.

    You used to be able to access this graphically from Explorer, Tools->Folder Options, but now may also be in Control Panel, Default Programs->Associate a file type of protocol with a program.

    As others pointed out, the browser itself may have preferences for helper programs configured, but if it's happening across 3 different browsers, I'm thinking something underlying them - i.e., the operating system.

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Re: [OT] How to prevent my browser trying to download instead of display?
by kcott (Archbishop) on Jun 19, 2015 at 15:41 UTC

    G'day BrowserUk,

    What options do you get if you right-click? One or more of the following are usually available (actual wording varies from browser to browser):

    • Save — will probably go to Desktop or some other default download location
    • Save As ... — choose download location
    • Copy Link Address — `cd <wanted_download_location>` then your equivalent of `wget <pasted_link_address>`

    I have all those options on Opera (which from memory is your usual browser); however, I'm using Mac OS X so I can't really help with the Windows side of things.

    -- Ken

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[d/l]
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      What options do you get if you right-click?

      I get the download options if I right click the link; but that's not the issue. I don't want to download the files; I just want to browse them.

      But for some reason, some sites insist on tagging source files with weird mime types (like text/x-chdr??) which none of my browsers know what to do with, so instead of displaying the source files the only option they give me is to download.

      In Opera, I just added text/x-chdr to the preferences->advanced->downloads page and told it to just display the file; and that fixed the problem for that browser. I cannot find a similar option for Firefox.

      The problem is the servers serving weird mime-types rather then the browser or OS.

      With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
      I'm with torvalds on this Agile (and TDD) debunked I told'em LLVM was the way to go. But did they listen!
[reply]
        "I don't want to download the files; I just want to browse them."

        My mistake. I misread your OP. I think I must have focussed on:

        "... want to download the file and display it in some other application rather than just displaying it."

        You were saying what your browsers want; not what you want.

        I think I've been gazing at far too many weird looking Unicode glyphs today. Time to rest my tired eyes.

        -- Ken

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