Question

So… I have an http handler which serves documents. The response contentType is correctly set but the url of the handler does not have an extension i.e. pdf.

It looks like this:

http://mysite/handler.ashx?id=123&locale=123

When I visit this url in firefox/chrome etc (i.e. the decent browsers) all is well (the browser correctly selects a plugin (such as acrobat reader) to render the file within the browser) .

If I visit this url in internet explorer 7, the first time all is well. If I press refresh or visit the url again without closing the browser, I get a dialog that asks “Do you want to open or save this file”!!!! If I click open, nothing happens!

Next I created a redirect page… so I visit

http://mysite/redirectto.aspx?id=123&locale=123

This page just redirects to the original url and still issues mention above occurred.

Not that the same problem occurs for whereever a plugin is required to render the file i.e. tiff files using alternatiff, pdf using acrobat reader – they all have exactly the same issue!

Ideas??

Answer 1

so…

I created a intermediate page which contains an iframe styled to fill the page.
The iframe points at the httphandler.
i.e.

This solves the issue for internet explorer.

Crucially this solution requires no additional configuration 🙂