Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE

Rodster001 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Greetings!

I am having some problems with IE and how it is handling the Content-Disposition header (I am not the first as it would seem).

When clicking a link in a web page with a CGI that returns the Content-Disposition header, IE will display a dialogue box "Save Open Cancel". Save works fine (saving the file and then opening works). Open, however will open the helper application but the file is always not found.

I have done some searching on the Net about this and found a few posted topics but no answers. Any ideas? Workarounds?

Here is a stripped down sample HTML page and CGI so you can reproduce the error and see for yourself.

test.html:

<a href="test.cgi">Download</a>
[download]

test.cgi:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
print "Content-type: application/octet-stream\n";
print "Content-disposition: attachment; filename=big-test.csv\n\n";
print "Test,One,Two,Three\n";
exit;
[download]

Note: For this error to be produced as I am explaining it, you need both the HTML and CGI file. Opening the CGI directly in IE produces different results. Also, the Content-type header can be omitted and produces the same results. I won't bother mentioning that this works fine in Firefox... oh, oops ;)

As always, thank you in advance for any enlightenment!

Comment on Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 14, 2009 at 18:55 UTC
You really should include the name of the file you are trying to open in the error message you output. I bet you are trying to open `C:\Documents` [download] instead of `C:\Documents and Settings\...\big-test[1].csv` [download] I changed `.csv` to `.txt` (since .csv isn't associated with anything on my machine) and it works fine for me in IE6. Are you sure your association is correct? Note the quotes around the `%1`: `"C:\Program Files\editor\editor.exe" "%1"` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by tilly (Archbishop) on Jan 14, 2009 at 18:07 UTC
I don't have IE to test with, but based on a Google search the following has a good chance of fixing it. `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; print "Content-type: application/octet-stream\n"; print "Cache-Control: private\n"; print "Content-disposition: attachment; filename=big-test.csv\n\n"; print "Test,One,Two,Three\n"; exit;` [download] (This is based on this experience someone else had.)	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by Rodster001 (Pilgrim) on Jan 14, 2009 at 18:22 UTC
No dice :( The Cache-Control header didn't change a thing. But it does seem to be something to do with the cache. Almost like IE is deleting the file immediately after it creates it.	[reply]
Re^3: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by tilly (Archbishop) on Jan 14, 2009 at 18:29 UTC
Perhaps capitalization matters? `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; print "Content-type: application/octet-stream\n"; print "Cache-Control: private\n"; print "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=big-test.csv\n\n"; print "Test,One,Two,Three\n"; exit;` [download] Update: And if that doesn't work, perhaps `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; print "Pragma: \n"; print "Cache-Control: \n"; print "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"big-test.csv\"\n"; print "Content-type: application/octet-stream\n\n"; print "Test,One,Two,Three\n"; exit;` [download] (It is frustrating that I can't test these suggestions, but I don't have IE to test with and it is a browser issue.)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 14, 2009 at 18:50 UTC
Re^5: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by tilly (Archbishop) on Jan 14, 2009 at 19:04 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^4: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by Rodster001 (Pilgrim) on Jan 14, 2009 at 18:39 UTC
Re^5: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by tilly (Archbishop) on Jan 14, 2009 at 18:45 UTC
Re: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by assemble (Friar) on Jan 14, 2009 at 18:41 UTC
I tested the code and it appears to work fine. Perhaps there is some setting in your IE that's been changed to not allow it? Have you tried this on somebody else's computer?	[reply]
Re^2: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by Rodster001 (Pilgrim) on Jan 14, 2009 at 19:01 UTC
Yeah, I have gone around in the office and most of the computers here are doing the same thing (I tested 6, one could open the Excel docs, csv but not Acrobat, pdf. All the rest are doing what mine is). We are all running the same versions of IE too. This really sucks. Update: So, testing different file extensions and different computers produces a very wide range of results and all of which are very inconsistent (which is no good). My conclusion: This header's implementation in IE is not too reliable :)	[reply]
Re^3: Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 14, 2009 at 19:13 UTC
Given that the problem doesn't depend on the version of IE and it does depend on the extension, my suspicion that the associations on your computers are broken is looking extremely likely.	[reply]