Firefox vs. AULA documents
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I forbindelse med omstruktureringen af AU skiftede instituttet navn fra Institut for Matematiske Fag til Institut for Matematik.
URL'en for vore websider passer derfor ikke længere med navnet på instituttet. Alle vore sider og aktiviterer føres derfor videre på andre sites. Opdater venligst dine bookmarks.
I stedet for ét samlet site har AU vedtaget at alle institutter skal deles ud på (mindst) 3 separate sites (alt efter målgruppe). Man vil derfor fremover kunne finde Matematiks sider via:
- math.au.dk - vort eksterne site
- math.medarbejdere.au.dk - vort site vedr. informationer til egne medarbejdere. Sitet er en del af den portal AU allerede har opbygget med informationer rettet mod medarbejdere.
- studerende.au.dk/matematik - er portalindgangen for studerende, denne skulle gøre det nemmere for studerende at finde rundt på tværs af studier.
For some years IE users have had problems with documents in the AU AULA e-learnings system. Our Firefox 3 now suffer from the same problem, i.e. if one clicks on, say, a PDF file in Documents on an AULA page, you only get the option to save it to disk or cancel.
A piece of technical explanation
When your browser recieves information from the server you asked it to connect to, the server at the other end sends the requested data back accompanied with some information about what it is that is being sent back to you. This information is called the mime-type of the contents.
A PDF file should have the mime-type application/pdf from which your browser will then deside what to do this this recieved PD, or other file types.
The problem with AULA
Is that the AULA server does not send back the correct information to your browser. It sends back the generic type application/octet-stream which could be anything. Since the browser does not know what this is (newer browsers may look into the requested file itself, to see if they can figure out the correct mime-type) the safest thing for the browser to offer is save to disk or cancel.
How can we fix this?
By fixing AULA of course, but that is not going to happen any time soon. (Feel free to complain to the AULA support people, and ask them to get this fixed).
Instead we will explain how you can fix this in your own Firefox setup.
Install Firefox extension
Start by installing the Force Content-Type extension in your Firefox. Installs like any other extenstion. Remember to restart Firefox afterwards.
Enable the Extension
The extension is disabled by default, so start by enabling it first. In an English FF this is Tools -> Add-ons, select Force Content-Type, click preferences, remove the tick mark in Disable Force Content-Type.
Notice how the New button is now accessable.
Configure the extension
We will now configure the extension such that when ever we ask for a PDF file on AULA, which is delivered with the mime-type application/octet-stream then Firefox will react as if it was application/pdf instead.
Start by clicking New:
From left to right will in these data in the three fields
- .*aula\.au\.dk/.*\.pdf
- application/octet-stream
- application/pdf
notice how the first item is written, spelled out it is dot star a u l a backslash dot a u backslash dot d k slash dot star backslash dot p d f
That is is, now save it and go back to AULA to test it.
You can do the same with other file types.
A bit of waring
Do not specify that every application/octet-stream fille you encounter should be enterpreted as PDF, you cannot in general trust that all files with the extension .pdf is actually a pdf.
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