[Catalyst] Detecting if a user aborted a (long) download

Wade.Stuart at fallon.com Wade.Stuart at fallon.com
Mon Mar 12 18:21:45 GMT 2007





> Since we haven't heard from the OP. I have two questions:
> o Did you investigate sendfile?

Sendfile() buys you nothing relevant to the OP's question.

> o Have you considered implementing a download progress indicator? One of
> the reasons users give up on downloads is that they don't know what's
> happening.

What browser are you using that does not:

1, have its own download session manager + progress display
2, where download app continues download even if you leave the page/site
that started it
3, and the browser tells you "hey numbnuts, you are still downloading are
you sure you want to close?" when you try to close your browser before the
download is complete.
4, where a separate download progress bar that is non standard would be
anything but confusing to a user?

The bottom line is, downloads break sometimes for many reasons.  Your app
(being on the server) will never be able to know if the download completes
or not unless you control the download end-to-end (such as writing and
distributing your own download manager).  A silly progress bar embedded in
your webapp does not get you past this problem.  A simple, smart and quite
frankly the industry standard solution is to allow the user to try again on
failure.








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