Frontpage / Web Design question

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

I'll post this here for all the smart guys to see....


Can somebody give me a quick explanation of how to allow someone to download a file from a website. I have a spreadsheet file I need to allow visitors to download off my site, and I am not sure how I can allow this. I am using Frontpage 2000 and have a limited knowledge of HTML.

Thanks.

 

[Czar]

upload the file and link to it

 

[KeyserSoze]

Just put a link to that file.

Suppose that file was called "Document.xls", then your link would be something like:

||a href="http://www.mysite.com/document.xls" || Click here to Download Document ||/a||


Wherever you see a ||, that means </>. I didn't put those in, cuz didn't know if it would try to link it or something.

Hope this helps,


KeyserSoze

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Ok, I have linked it, but all that does is open the file on the page....how can I force a download?

Thanks BTW for the help...didn't know it was that simple to do that.

 

[KeyserSoze]

To force the download? I thought it does that. You can tell your users to "right click, and save target as" depending on browser. I'm not quite sure how to FORCE it.


EDIT: Since you sound like a Noob (Don't worry, we all started somewhere), let me give you a great site to help you with all sorts of Web Stuff. Web Developers Virtual Library



KeyserSoze

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Usually when I click on a link to a file on someone's site, it pops up wiuth a download option to "Open" or "Save File As...."


Anyone else know about this?

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

^

 

[Beau]

It only does this to files that you don't have a program installed that interfaces with netscape/internet explorer (ie an unknown file type). You could ZIP it with win zip and then upload the zipped file.

 

[Czar]

<< Usually when I click on a link to a file on someone's site, it pops up wiuth a download option to "Open" or "Save File As...."


Anyone else know about this? >>



you cant, that is a client setting, the client chooses to always open this type of file instead of saving it. You cant do anything about that. You can only advise people to right click on the link and choose save link as.

 

[HappyFace]

HTML Goodies is also a great site for the aspiring web designer. Often times a quick search at goodies reveals all the information I need!

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Great info guys, thanx a bunch!

I got suckered into designing a site for a professional/civic organization I belong to. Didn't have time to learn HTML, hence the Frontpage.

Topeka Active 20-30

Comments welcome (except that frames suck..I know, but they want them b/c they like them. and I gave up arguing.) Not bad for a few hours work IMHO...

 

[ghostman]

I don't think there is an HTML for the force download thing. As stated, zipping the file or asking them to save target as are easiest. However, someone on these forums asked a similar question for Word files a while back. I found a perl script that seems to work, though getting it to work on your system is another story.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
$binary = "test.doc";
open(DOWNLOAD,"<$binary") or die $!;
print "Content-Type:application/msword\n";
print "Content-Disposition:attachment; filename=$binary\n";
print "Content-Length:\n\n";
binmode(DOWNLOAD);binmode(STDOUT);
while(read DOWNLOAD, $buffer, 1){ print $buffer; }
close(DOWNLOAD);

The website is nice, but I'm not a fan of that marquee on the bottom. If you pop open Netscape, you'll see why (marquee is IE-specific). But if you don't mind a minimal look inconsistancy for Netscape users, then you can let it slide. Also, the "Save Target As..." in IE is called "Save Link As..." in Netscape. Of course, Netscape users are dwindling, so you might not have to worry yourself about it.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Ghostman,

Thanks for the critique! As far as I am concerned, the Netscape folks can figure out the Target/Link thing, but I'll look into the marque thing to see what it does exactly...

They should come to the dark side (IE) anyhow. It's better over here...



BTW, if I don't set the spreadsheet to open in a new window, it doesn't prompt for download, but it DOES when I set it to a new window. I'm going to leave it as it now is b/c I think it is more useful for our target audience to be able to see the file on-screen anyhow, so it turned out to be a nice surprise.