How to RUN a fil from my website?

[Tim McGavin]

I have a file that is not typical. It is called "opend.smp". If the file
is located on the desktop and a user double-clicks it, a local proprietary
program is launched. How can I make this happen from my website? i have
the file "opend.smp" located on my website but it won't launch the local
program. How can I cause a local program to be launched? Do I need to
write an ActiveX control or something similar?

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

You may need to re-think this. Browsers are designed NOT to let this sort of
thing happen. Users don't want things automatically launching applications
or doing it without their consent. Things like a Word doc opening in the
browser are different because those are active documents that can be hosted
within the browser instance. If there is no file viewer associated that the
web browser knows of, the typical user expects to be asked to do something
with it. You may be able to do this by setting a MIME type on the server so
that the web browser gets information as to what type of file it is and a
may be able to determine what the appropriate viewer is for that file.

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

I have a file that is not typical. It is called "opend.smp". If the file
is located on the desktop and a user double-clicks it, a local proprietary
program is launched. How can I make this happen from my website? i have
the file "opend.smp" located on my website but it won't launch the local
program. How can I cause a local program to be launched? Do I need to
write an ActiveX control or something similar?

You *might* be able to do this by specifying the "application/x-custom" MIME
type, though most ISPs will actively block this...
http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread53317.html

By far the simplest method is to provide a hyperlink to the file which the
user clicks and then saves to their desktop, from where they can launch
it...

 

[Tim McGavin]

You may need to re-think this. Browsers are designed NOT to let this sort

of thing happen. Users don't want things automatically launching
applications or doing it without their consent.

Mark,

I don't need anything to happen without the users consent. Isn't there a
way to make this happen by installing something into the browser first? Do
I need to write some kind of tool-bar? Some kind of VB control? I have
seen things like this before but the only one that comes to mind is MS's
Windows Update
page. If I can find another example I'll post it.

 

[Tim McGavin]

Ok I found something that "kind of" works. If I put my proprietary file on
my FTP site and simply provide the user with a link to it, it does what I
want. It launches the local application for the file. But is there a way
to do this without using an FTP site?

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

Ok I found something that "kind of" works. If I put my proprietary file
on my FTP site and simply provide the user with a link to it, it does what
I want. It launches the local application for the file. But is there a
way to do this without using an FTP site?

Other than what Mark and I have already suggested, I don't think so...

 

[Alexey Smirnov]

Ok I found something that "kind of" works. If I put my proprietary file on
my FTP site and simply provide the user with a link to it, it does what I
want. It launches the local application for the file. But is there a way
to do this without using an FTP site?

Force the browser to display the Open/Save dialog. Don't put the
direct link to the file, but set the Response object's ContentType
property to application/octet-stream and add an HTTP Request header
called Content-Disposition with the following value: attachment;
filename="filename" where filename will be the name of your file.

string filename = Path.GetFileName("/opend.smp");
Response.Clear();
Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream";
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;
filename=""opend.smp""");
Response.Flush();
Response.WriteFile(filepath);