Specify the action for a link depending on its file extension

[village idiot]

Hello,

On our website users can download templates that are used in one of our applications. The templates are just plain text files of about 5k, and they have the extension .tpl.

Problem is when someone clicks on one of the template links, the page opens in the browser, what we want is the dialog to pop up asking the user where they want to save it.

Is this possible?

Also, is it possible to specify a default path where a file is to be downloaded to. The templates have to be placed in a specific directory and it would be nice if when the dialog pops up this directory is already set, e.g. C:\Program Files\My App\Templates

Thanks

[CornedBee]

Problem is when someone clicks on one of the template links, the page opens in the browser, what we want is the dialog to pop up asking the user where they want to save it.

Most likely, the server is configured to send unknown files as text/plain. You need to change your server config to send .tpl files as some other MIME type, for example:
text/vnd.yourcompany.template
or
text/x-yoursystem-template

Also, is it possible to specify a default path where a file is to be downloaded to. The templates have to be placed in a specific directory and it would be nice if when the dialog pops up this directory is already set, e.g. C:\Program Files\My App\Templates

No, that's impossible. It wouldn't make sense, either. On my computer, your app would be in
C:\Programme\Your App\
and on my other computer, if there at all, it would probably be in
/usr/share/yourapp/

[village idiot]

I added the following line to my .htaccess file

AddType application/octet-stream .tpl

It now downloads the file correctly in Netscape but not IE. I tried it with and without a . in front of the tpl but it made no difference.

[CornedBee]

Once Netscape handles it correctly that means you've set the server up correctly. Looks like an IE problem. Which is strange.

Try a completely different MIME type?

[FPG]

Although this would require the end user to have a unzipping program, all browsers download .zip files to the harddrive instead of opening them in the browser window. Just zip up all of your .tpl templates.