594556 - Firefox does not offer 'Open With' action for octetstream mimetype

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 369431

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[jenningsthecat]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091123 Firefox/3.5.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.11) Gecko/20100721 Iceweasel/3.5.11 (like Firefox/3.5.11)

When clicking on a link to, for example, a PDF file whose mimetype is incorrectly identified as 'application/octetstream', Firefox offers only the option of saving the file, not opening it. It would be better if Firefox opened a dialog allowing the user to choose an application with which to open the file. This enhancement would spare users the trouble of saving, then deleting, a file which they merely want to view, in cases where the filetype has been incorrectly identified by the server.

Firefox is already user-configurable to, by default, open this mimetype with a user-specified application. I think it would be useful if the same choice, (minus the option of making it a default action), could be presented to the user upon clicking a link.

I realize that the responsibility for this problem really rests with the operators of the offending sites, but it's such a prevalent annoyance that Mozilla would be doing its users a great favour by making it easier to open these mis-mimetyped files.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Navigate to <http://www.cycle-helmets.com/cyclingreport_timgill.pdf>
2.
3.
Actual Results:  
A dialog box appears which says:

"You have chosen to open

Irresistible.pdf

which is a: PDF document
from: http://policy.rutgers.edu

Would you like to save this file?"

There are only two choices: cancel, or save the file.

Expected Results:  
A dialog box should appear, saying:

"You have chosen to open

Irresistible.pdf

which is a: PDF document
from: http://policy.rutgers.edu

What should Firefox do with this file?"

This should be followed by radio buttons to select either 'Save', or 'Open With', with a pull-down list of available applications, but WITHOUT the checkbox for 'Do this automatically for files like this from now on'.

Comment 1

[jenningsthecat]

I can't find a way to edit the bug report I just submitted. The last two URLs should have read "http://www.cycle-helmets.com".

Comment 2

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This is wfm with SM trunk and FF3.6.9 on my win32 system.
This could be a dupe of bug 369431, can you please check that ?

Comment 3

[jenningsthecat]

Yes, this is the same bug. Sorry I missed it in the search I did before filing this.

So this has been going on for about three years now? I can see the impossibility of FF reliabily figuring out the appropriate application to use. However, if the user is allowed to select an application to open the file with, but is NOT allowed to assign a default action for an ambiguous mimetype, wouldn't this solve the problem?

If I mark this as a duplicate, will this thread be appended to bug 369431?

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

marking as dupe
A duplicate note will be added but nothing more