[Zope] IE and HTML pdf's generated on the fly

[De ZORZI Frederic]

> fredz@pimentech.net wrote Tue Oct 15 02:28:32 2002:
> 
>>Wrong.
>>I've done pdf generation on the fly with an external method :
>>
>>Headers :
>>	REQUEST.RESPONSE.setHeader('Content-Length',len(pdfoutput))
>>	REQUEST.RESPONSE.appendHeader('Content-Type','application/pdf')
>>External method :
>>choose an id with .pdf extension ; that's the only real method for that 
>>buggy Internet Exploder.
>>
>>Of course, this also works with Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, Konqueror ...
>>
> 
> 
> Frederic,
> 
> Thanks for your comment.  I'd like to rationalize your experience with mine
> and that of other list responses.  I believe that your comments apply to 
> the situation where the client makes an explicit request for a pdf document.
> Is my supposition correct?
> 

Yes, it's a direct link, not a form action, but I don't understand why 
IE should be confused if you do a "<form 
action="yourexternalmethod.pdf>", and echo the pdf document you want to 
serve in that script ?

> My case is a bit different.  In my case, the clent provides a description
> of the document he wants via a form, and a pdf document is served, but there 
> is no explicit request--it's just the response from submitting the form.
> IE appears to get confused by this, the other browsers do not.  
> 
> The solution appears to be to use a bit of redirection/refresh  magic.  
> The form iaction does not compute and serve the pdf, rather it generates a page
> that refreshes and redirects itself to a page that computes and serves the pdf,
> effectively arranging for the clent to request a pdf rather than sending 
> non-html material unannounced.  
> 
> 
>