setting hyperlinks for IES files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jen
  • Start date Start date
J

Jen

Hi,

I have some IES files hyperlinked to our website..
however.. when they are linked in and you click on the
link, a html page opens.. instead of popping up box
asking if you want to open or save the file.

Is there a way to set the hyperlinks so that a message
box pops up asking if you want to open or save the file,
instead of the link opening in a browser window?

Thanks,
Jen Fullerton
 
First, IES is not a standard file extension.
and doesn't have a very good explanation here either;
http://filext.com/index.php
and the only reference is to the:
Illuminating Engineering Society of America.

So, are you talking about photometric files??

And are you linking to an actual file or to a page
that contains the file??
 
Hi,

The files are photometric files... and we are trying to
link to individual files, not to another webpage. Since
the files seem to require a viewer to view them
correctly, we want website visitors to click on the file
link to download the file, so they can open it locally
later. We don't want the file to open in a browser
window, as it's doing now.

Thanks,
Jen Fullerton
 
Most people won't have the necessary viewer, so.....

1. How are visitors going to know they need a viewer??
2. Does your site have a link to a place to download the viewer??
3. Is the viewer free??

4. Is it opening in your browser because you have the
viewer installed??

Sorry to ask so many questions, but there's some
"dots" that don't seem to connect here.!
( going for more coffee )
:-)
 
Visitors who need these files will now they need a
viewer. We do not have a viewer available for them... but
if they need the files, they would have a way of viewing
them.

We do not have a viewer installed... when you click on
the link to (try and download) the files, an html page
opens with some funky gibberish.

On our existing website, which was done with dreamweaver
by a person who is no longer with the company, we have
these files linked and when you click the link, a box
pops up asking if you want to save or open the file. We
are developing a brand new site using frontpage, and for
some reason we just can't get that option to pop up
asking if we want to save.

I found a website that has these files, and it has the
option to either open the file for viewing (through a
viewer), or to download the individual file. This is the
kind of thing we're trying to do.. just be able to
download the file by clicking a link.

Thanks for your help... any ideas how to get the save
option?

http://www.lithonia.com/Library/IESFiles/default.asp?
Path=/Lithonia_Lighting/Downlighting/6
 
Add a note to tell users to right click and save or zip the files.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
We are going to put a note up too... but we'd really like
to make sure that they don't have the option to click the
link and see gibberish and think there's something wrong
and give up. You'd think there has to be a way to get
this to work.. as it does with executable files or with
word or excel files that you link to. We've never had any
problems with any files except these IES files.
 
Then zip the files.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
Jen,

I took a look at the Lithonia page and both links open up in my browser.
One opens the IES file up directly and it appears to be a plain text type of
file. The second opens a .asp page which, I'm assuming, reads in the data
from the related IES file and displays in a more user friendly format.

In either case, I was never prompted with a "Open or Save" message. Can you
find another page where visitors are prompted?

There are methods available that allow a web server to force a download
regardless of the file type. The one example I knew of appears to be
unavailable, but if anyone on your team is familiar with asp, this may help:
http://www.asp101.com/articles/jason/filedownloadlist/default.asp

If that isn't documented well enough, try Google searching for "force
download" and see what else you can find.

Also, is the Dreamweaver designed site running on the same web server where
you are seeing the problems now? Is the site using "plain HTML" or a
programming language such Cold Fusion, PHP, ASP or Perl? If it is running
some type of program, you'll need to replicate that behavior in your new
site. Also check to make sure that you have duplicated the configuration on
the new server including mime type information. Since the IES file seems to
be a plain text file, you may just need to add a mime type to at least stop
the garbage from appearing. Your web server admin will probably need to
check that.

Good luck!
 
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