Re: [cgiapp] How to download a dynamically generated file

["Adam Gent" <suppressed>]

> Hi John,
>
> John Crowley wrote:
>
> >Steve,
> >
> >I believe the best way would be to redirect the user to a page which has
its
> >headers set to the appropriate MIME type. In a simple (non-C::A) CGI, you
can
> >use the following line...
> >
> Hmm.  So I use CGI-Application to generate the file and then send a
> redirect header.  The page that the user is redirected to is then
> handled by a non-CGI-Application CGI script that downloads that file, yes?
>
> I would rather do it in one step rather than two, and all inside
> CGI-Application, if possible.
>
> It seems a shame to have to step outside of CGI-Application to achieve
> something so simple.
>
> >
> >[ generate your file ]
> >
> >print header(-type => "text/comma-separated-values",
> >      -attachment => "download.csv");
> >
> I had a look at the CGI.pm manpage, and it says this about the
> -attachment argument:
>
> "The -attachment parameter can be used to turn the page into an
> attachment. Instead of displaying the page, some browsers will prompt
> the user to save it to disk. The value of the argument is the suggested
> name for the saved file."
>
> That's not inappropriate behaviour for a ZIP file download, but would be
> annoying for PDF files which the browser normally "handles" by passing
> to the Adobe Reader.
>
> So I prefer not to use the -attachment argument in those headers.  The
> browser will still pop up a "Save As..." dialogue box anyway if it
> doesn't recognise the MIME type or has no action configured for it.
>
> >
> >Then print the data to the browser.
> >
> >For PDFs and ZIPs, I'm not sure if you can simply print, but let us know
if
> >you succeed.
> >
> Yes, you can print anything you like to the browser as long as (1)
> you've set the correct Content-Type in the headers (using the -type
> argument) and (2) you've set both the filehandle that you're reading the
> file in from and STDOUT that you're writing the file out to to "binary
> mode" if you're on a platform like Windoze that does nasty CRLF
> translations otherwise.
>
> - Steve
>

Hi,

There is no reason why it can not be all done within the C::A.

If the run mode generates the file and saves it to disk as a temporary file.
The run mode can then output the correct header.

Adam



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