[Techtalk] configuring Apache2 for pdf

[Cynthia Kiser]

Quoting Helen Rosseau <hrosseau at rogers.com>:
> This is what I get as a result from your suggestion
> 
> susebox:/opt/mozilla/lib # wget -S http://www.blackburnhamlet.ca/juno4/pg1.pdf
> --15:34:10--  http://www.blackburnhamlet.ca/juno4/pg1.pdf
>            => `pg1.pdf'
> Resolving www.blackburnhamlet.ca... done.
> Connecting to www.blackburnhamlet.ca[69.198.158.16]:80... connected.
> HTTP request sent, awaiting response...
>  1 HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
>  2 Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 19:28:33 GMT
>  3 Server: Apache/2.0.47 (Linux/SuSE)
>  4 Vary: accept-language,accept-charset
>  5 Accept-Ranges: bytes
>  6 Connection: close
>  7 Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
>  8 Content-Language: en
>  9 Expires: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 19:28:33 GMT
> 15:34:10 ERROR 404: Not Found.

Well a 404 error is not good - the url is bad. Please try a working
url. When you do, look at the Content-Type: line. The example above
says "text/html". If your apache is properly configured AND asked for
an actual pdf, then the mime type should be "application/pdf"/. Here
is a working example (though the astute among you will notice, not
from an Apache server):

$ wget -S http://www.caltech.edu/map/map-dir-5-01.pdf 
--15:50:29--  http://www.caltech.edu/map/map-dir-5-01.pdf 
           => `map-dir-5-01.pdf' 
Resolving www.caltech.edu... done. 
Connecting to www.caltech.edu[131.215.220.4]:80... connected. 
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...  
 1 HTTP/1.0 200 OK 
 2 Set-Cookie: ad_browser_id=39360153; Path=/; Expires=Fri,
01-Jan-2010 01:00:00 GMT 
 3 Set-Cookie: ad_session_id=39360154%2c0%2cF844FDC53F033932AB3C85CD221B594F286E5F88%2c1086907829;
Path=/; Max-Age=86400 
 4 Last-Modified: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 20:08:22 GMT 
 5 MIME-Version: 1.0 
 6 Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 22:50:29 GMT 
 7 Server: AOLserver/3.3.1+ad13 
 8 Content-Type: application/pdf 
 9 Content-Length: 11803 
10 Connection: keep-alive 
 
    0K .......... .                                          100%
523.93 KB/s 
 
15:50:29 (523.93 KB/s) - `map-dir-5-01.pdf' saved [11803/11803] 

In your httpd.conf file there should be a line like this one from my
apache 2.? install:

   TypesConfig etc/apache/mime.types 

When you look in the mime.types file, you should see a line that maps
the extension pdf to the mime type. Like this: 

   application/pdf                 pdf 


-- 
Cynthia N. Kiser
cnk at ugcs.caltech.edu