From:	Owen	Date:	Fri Apr 25 16:21:15 2008
Subject:	Re: Opening a File in its Native Application

> Hi,
> I would like to create a button on a web page that opens a file in it's
> application (ie. open a scientific file in it's native application).  My
> file does not have an extension and so I think it probably will not open
> automatically with the system("start docname") command.
> Thank you,
> Lynn
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Owen <rcook@pcug.org.au>
> To: beginners-cgi@perl.org
> Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 11:11:37 PM
> Subject: Re: Opening a File in its Native Application
>
> On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:34:25 -0700 (PDT)
> Lynn Etheredge <etheredge_lynn@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I would like to open a file in it's native application.  It doesn't have
>> a specified extension, however, so I would need to specify the
>> application somehow.  I saw
>>
>> system("start docname")
>>
>> but this doesn't specify the application.
>
>
>
> I am not sure what you really want to do.
>
> As this is a 'cgi' list I presume you want to open up a file so it can be
> read on the web
>
> And that file might be a MS "Word" document, in which case there may well
> be a perl module that reads Word documents
>
> So could you elaborate a little more perhaps?







I don't think that what you are asking is possible.

I think you are asking for a document that is on a server to be presented
to your computer/monitor as it would be if the document was on your
computer and read by the native application on your computer.

Look at Google, they present pdf documents. You can click on the pdf and
it is then downloaded and opened in your pdf reader. Google have an
alternative link, 'Show html'

That means they pull the pdf apart and send it to you as a html document,
virtually the only sort of document that can be read by a browser.

So my guess is that you want similar results with your document. Unless
there is a 'native format' to html converter, you are out of luck.

You are probably better off to get your users to download the document and
let them open it in their own native application.



Owen