RE: using MIME multipart/mixed

(Resending because I got a weired "bounced" message...)


> The request from the client is a GET request. The
> headers from the request are as follows:
>
> User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0;
> Windows NT; DigExt)
> Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg,
> application/vnd.ms-excel, application/msword,
> application/vnd.ms-powerpoint,
> application/x-comet, */*
> Host: localhost:8080
> Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
> Accept-Language: en-us
> Connection: Keep-Alive
>
>
> The server sends a multipart/mixed document.
> I have a sample servlet that sets the following
> properties for the HttpServletResponse followed
> by the body.The content-length is set correclty
> to the size of the body.
>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type:
> multipart/mixed;boundary=D8119DDD2D264D4480E57277
> Content-Length: <length of the stream>
>
> --D8119DDD2D264D4480E57277
> Content-Type: application/octet-stream
> Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="header.hdr"
> Content-ID: <hdr.GetMultipart@c682537-b.slamdunknetworks.com>
>
> This is a sample header
>
> pravin
>
> --D8119DDD2D264D4480E57277
> Content-Type: application/octet-stream
> Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="content.pld"
> Content-ID: <content.GetMultipart@c682537-b.slamdunknetworks.com>
>
> This is a sample content body.
>
> --D8119DDD2D264D4480E57277--
>
>
> As mentioned earlier, Netscape prompts twice to save
> the contents in header.hdr and contents.pld
> IE simply displays complete body including the
> multipart boundary strings.
>
> Any help will be highly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pravin.

I did some poking around Microsoft's Technical Support web site and found the
following KB articles:

Q250983 "Using Netscape Server Push Technology with ASP"
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q250/9/83.ASP

Q151504 "Using Server Push with IIS"
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q151/5/04.ASP

Q234266 "High-Speed Push-Technology Program May Overwrite Internet Cache"
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q234/2/66.ASP

(That last one might not be relevant but I thought I'd include it anyway)

I then did some searching on Deja.com (and saw your posts) and found the
following:

"Re: Is Multipart MIME valid in HTTP?"
Date: 08/09/1999
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=510624816

"Re: help:Mime Multipart for downloading"
Date: 02/02/2000
http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=580779940

I found a few others too but didn't include them here, but based on what I *did*
see, the results don't look too promising I'm afraid. It's beginning to look
very much like you're S.O.L.

One thing you *might* try is changing your Content-Type to
"multipart/x-mixed;..." or "multipart/x-mixed-replace;..." I noticed on my
system that when I did that, I *almost* got it to work the way you want it to.
Internet Explorer did present me with a "Save As" dialog box, but it was
immediately overlaid with another error dialog complaining about the fact that
it was unable to retrieve the file attributes for "header.hdr". from the test
site I was using. I then uploaded some dummy "header.hdr" and "content.pld"
files and tried again and this time it *appeared* to work, BUT... didn't quite.
When the files are actually present on the web site that sends me your above
multipart response, it does indeed present me with a "Save As" dialog box and
allow me to save it, BUT... 1) it only presents me with ONE "Save As" dialog box
(for "header.hdr" -- the first file) and not two, and 2) the file content that
get saved in the "header.hdr" file consists of the actual entity body of
received message: i.e. the entire MIME contents from the first boundary to the
last (i.e. the entire stream).

I don't know what else to say. From what I'm seeing It looks like Microsoft
Internet Explorer doesn't support what you're trying to do.

If you *do* figure it out, be sure to let us know what you did to get it to
work. From the looks of it there are a lot of others out there who'd be very
grateful.

Good luck!

--
"Fish" (David B. Trout)
   fish@infidels.org

Received on Sunday, 31 December 2000 16:46:56 UTC