File Downloads

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil Warwick
  • Start date Start date
N

Neil Warwick

Hi all,
I'm new to all this web stuff (less than 24hrs!), and
have just started designing a website using FP 2002, but
I can't work out how to create a downloads section.
I have been able to upload my site to my web host, as
well as the files I want to download. When I link to the
files, they are displayed rather than downloaded.
Any help or pointers in the right direction would be
greatly appreciated

Thanks

Neil
 
A browser downloads files. That is what it is designed to do. When you see
them in the browser, they are already downloaded.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.
 
On my download section of my website (www.chatnfiles.com) , the
administrator setup a separate virtual server and then gave the anonymous
the ability to browse. Since there is no "index.htm" in the subdirectory,
the server displays a page of hypertext links to files or subdirectories.
It downloads fine. Now to get that to work without setting up the server so
it will allow a users to browse a subdirectory, I'm not sure how...
Respectfully,
Tom Miller
 
depends of the types of files - if they are html files then they are supposed to
be displayed in the browser.
If they are Office applciation files (word, excel etc) they will attempt to open
in the browser/application if the user has Word or Excel etc on his machine -
otherwise it gives an error about MS Word not found or whatever.
if they are for example movies or sound files, they will play in the user's
default player (e.g. if "Real Media" they will "stream" if set up to do so.

The common way to allow download files is to compress them with Winzip (or some
other archiving software) - so the user left-clicks, and the dialogue pops up
with the 'save as' options - you choose the location and it proceeds to download.

Commonly the other way to download is for the user to right-click the link and
choose "Save As" or "Save Target as". You will have to put instructions to this
effect on your pages.
 
I believe he wants downloads as in Tucows.com or something - on sites like that
"download" the exe or installer file for software as compared to "viewing" a web
page. Download is such a transparent term as it refers to any file transfer from
a remote server to the local computer, including normal browsing of pages.
 
Thanks for the info Andy, that's what I was hoping for.
The file for download is a winzip file containing an
Access database, and a PDF Document, when I link to it,
the contents of the zip file are displayed.
Is this because I'm currently only publishing to a disk
web, and when I actually publish to the hosting service
it will download? (I'm just waiting for the hosting
service to activate my account)
 
The file should have the extension .zip or .exe. Try downloading it from a
"preview in browser" window. That should work. Are you sure the file is
really zipped? If the files are displayed rather than downloaded, that means
that FP is opening the zipped files, which seems unlikely.

Wally S
 
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