Re: using rpg cgi to send a .csv or .rtf file

Mike,

A CGI program can generate any type of content but you have to set the
HTTP headers correctly and correctly generate the content. Also, there's
a content-disposition header that you can use to force the browser to
display the save/open dialog and specify the file name. Here's an
example of the headers I send when I generate a CSV file:

Content-type: application/msexcel-comma
Content-encoding: ebcdic
Expires: Tues, 01 Jan 1980 00:00:00 GMT
content-disposition: attachment; filename=upcoming editions list.csv

If you translate the content to ASCII first, you don't need to set the
Content-encoding header but this is the less programming work way to
make sure the delivered content is readable.

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Mike Cunningham
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 11:05 PM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: [WEB400] using rpg cgi to send a .csv or .rtf file

I have done some RPG CGI to sent html files but I would now like to send
the user a .csv file that will open in Excel or a .rtf file that will
open in Word or a .vcs file that will open in Outlook. Is it possible to
use the same RPG CGI technique to do this (e.g. load a base file from
the IFS and use the CGI commands to replace the variable data and then
send the file like it was HTML) ? Or would I need to save the file back
to the IFS in a directory that the Apache server can serve from and then
do an HTML redirect to get he users browser pointed to that file ? In my
case I want to be able to let a student click on a button on a web page
and then convert the students class schedule into a .vcs file (already
have that code) that will be sent immediately and present the student
with the normal "Open" or "Save" prompt from their browser.