Re: LYNX-DEV FTP URL with ;type=I

[Klaus Weide]

On Sun, 13 Apr 1997, Howard Kaikow wrote:
> At 06:15 PM 4/13/97 -0500, Klaus Weide wrote:
> 
> >So, (1) the ";type=I" may not be necessary, (2) You should map ".doc"
> >to "application/msword" (if that's what it is) or similar, and/or
> >ask you ISP to do so in the global mapping file; and also instruct
> >others who may want to retrieve the files to do the equivalent, or
> >just use the 'Download' function of their browser ('D' key in Lynx).
> 
> Yes, but my ISP correctly states that .doc is not necessarily a Word file
> and could be text so others would be affected if lynx.cfg were changed to
> associate .doc with msword.

True.

But it is not clear to me whether you just want those files accessible to
yourself, or you want to offer them to others (who may use different
clients).  If the former, just use a personal mime.types file.
If the latter, then there just is no automatic way to tell the browser
how to handle the file.  That's the price for using the FTP protocol
which doesn't handle meta-information.
 
> I have a .htaccess in my www page that defines application/msword, the
> problem is that this does not apply to files on the FTP server, only those
> on the HTTP server in my directory tree.
> 
> Is there something that I can put in my www page that will affect Downloads
> from the FTP server?

The HTML Pro DTD (<URL: http://www.ucc.ie/doc/www/html/dtds/htmlpro.html>)
has a "type" attribute for the A alement, listed as follows:

               type  CDATA    #IMPLIED
               --<Title>Internet media type--

I assume it is meant for what you have in mind, but AFAIK nobody is
implementing it.

> I would prefer to not have the type parameter, but I need to find someway
> to force the download in binary.

Anyway you cannot "force" misbehaving clients to do anything, I think
some (Microsoft?) clients even disobey explicit type information from
HTTP headers.

> My only recourse is to use .zip files, but some Mac users might not like that.

You could use some suffix that is more likely to be regarded as binary
(maybe .bin).  You will still have to tell your downloaders what to do
with it.  You might as well leave them as .doc and instruct them to
use the 'D'ownload key with lynx, shift-click or whatever-it-is with
other browsers etc.

  Klaus

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