Chrome has this awesome internal PDF viewer which makes the user experience really great. It triggers on web servers responding with the PDF content type (application/pdf). However, in reality a lot of web servers are simply returning application/octet-stream, with a file extension of '.pdf'. Those links trigger the 'warning' download which can be really confusing. I'm seeing this constantly, also on popular websites. I propose to handle files ending with '.pdf' of content-type 'application/octet-stream' the same way as files downloaded with 'application/pdf' - try to preview directly in Chrome with the internal PDF viewer, and on failure have the same fallback. Processing Cc: asanka@chromium.org Status: Untriaged Summary: Downloaded files of type application/octet-stream + file extension.pdf should be handled by internal PDF Viewer (was: NULL) Asanka: Worth considering this as part of the plugin vs.

BufferredResourceHandler regularization work you're doing? I had assumed that most of the download when PDF viewer was wanted was due to content-disposition headers, but this is a plausible alternative user frustration pathway, and one that we might reasonably be able to fix. (We want to obey content-disposition.). Processing The other examples I had also all made the content-disposition header in addition. So let me re-phrase my wish then: On IE, the download is a dedicated dialog, it pops up in the foreground when done and gives the user an explicit 'open' action. On Chrome-OS, the download is a subtle box at the bottom.

It does not start downloading until the user agrees to a scary message. And then there is no obvious way (at least not for me) to actually open that PDF in Chrome for preview.

Is this a workflow which we could improve? I could imagine that for this specific case it would be valid to ask the user if he wants to download or view directly, and trust the content for immediate download given that this is a PDF (based on the file extension). Just an idea. Processing We've discussed overriding the Content-disposition header (you're not the only user who'd like that:-}) but concluded that we're not willing to arbitrarily override the website's explicit intention. It should be relatively easy to do with a Chrome extension.

If the issue is the Content-disposition header, I'm afraid this bug's destiny is WontFix. We'd like to provide 'Open With' functionality similar to Firefox (see ), which would allow the user to specify a download straight to open, and allowing the specification of the chrome PDF viewer for that would make sense. But yes, beyond that, there's no way to get a preview. One correction: the download actually is done in parallel with the scary message, so if you download a big, dangerous file, go to lunch, come back and only then click 'accept', the download should complete fairly close to instantaneously. Also, if you download the file, then go to the downloads page (Wrench ->Downloads) and click on the filename, that should bring the download up in the chrome PDF viewer. Not the ideal workflow in a couple of different ways (leaves a file on your disk, multiple clicks required at separated instants in time) but gives you some of what you want. Also, just to confirm: This is occurring on ChromeOS?

Properly Configuring Server MIME Types. Technical Background. Octet stream, Cover Stream 2. Philips Serial Xpress Protocol Galileo here. 6.6. Download License:Demo Downloads. StreamBaby is a. Mar 17, 2012 Download file in C#. I saw one sample which is opening all the file we download below is the. Response.ContentType = 'application/octet-stream'. Do I need Content-Type: application/octet-stream for. Content-Type: application/octet-stream. Application/octet-stream if I want browsers to download. OS: XP SP3 When trying to steam a series of jpeg images from a server to IE8, IE8 pops up a File Download Security Warning and.

Asanka, would you be willing to confirm that PDFs are dangerous file types on Chrome OS? I can't imagine why they should be, but the code appears to mark them as such.

Browsers and email clients routinely rename files with missing extensions to octet streams. If having trouble opening an octet-stream file, one should attempt to rename the file extension if the file type is known or displayed when downloading an attachment. If the file type is unknown and cannot be easily determined, ask the sender about the file type before attempting to rename the file. If an extension is properly renamed, the file should now open easily. Another option is to open the appropriate program for the file type and attempt to open the file in the program without renaming the extension. Be sure to open the file in the appropriate application based on the file type. Octet-stream files are usually executable application files.