file download servlet does not work on IE8

[Charles Latka]

Hi all,
I've created a servlet which allows user to download a generated file (only two types of files: xml and xls). Servlet works perfectly on FF, Chrome, and Opera, but on IE8, when client calls window.open, a new window appears and diaspaears in a moment, just flush. I've done some research and find out that this is a common problem and can be solved by one of the following versions of doGet method. But none of those works with xml and xls files. I'm out of any ideas.
Here are methods found during research, all of them works on commonly used browsers but not on IE8
Do You have any idea?

	 protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse
	 response)
	 throws ServletException, IOException {
	
	 String fileName = (String)
	 URLDecoder.decode(request.getParameter("fileName"), "UTF-8");
	
	
	 File file = new File("C:/temp", fileName);
	 String len = Long.toString(file.length());
	
	 response.setContentType("application/xml");
	 response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" +
	 fileName );
	 response.setHeader("Content-Length", len);
	 response.setHeader("pragma", "empty");
	 response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "must-revalidate");
	
	
	 BufferedInputStream input = null;
	 BufferedOutputStream output = null;
	
	 try {
	 input = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file));
	 output = new BufferedOutputStream(response.getOutputStream());
	
	 byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
	 for (int length = 0; (length = input.read(buffer)) > 0;) {
	 output.write(buffer, 0, length);
	 }
	 } finally {
	 if (output != null) try { output.close(); } catch (IOException ignore) {}
	 if (input != null) try { input.close(); } catch (IOException ignore) {}
	 }
	
	
	 }

	public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException, FileNotFoundException {

        
        String fileName = (String) URLDecoder.decode(request.getParameter("fileName"), "UTF-8");
        File tempFile = new File(filePath + fileName);
        FileInputStream tempInput = new FileInputStream(tempFile);                 
        File cacheFile = new File(fileName);
        FileOutputStream cacheFileOutputStream = null;
        boolean fileExists = false;

 

        try {
            cacheFileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(cacheFile);
            BufferedInputStream tempBuf = new BufferedInputStream(tempInput);
            int readBytes = 0;
            while ((readBytes = tempBuf.read()) != -1) {
                cacheFileOutputStream.write(readBytes);
            }
            fileExists = true;
        }
        catch (Exception ie) {
            fileExists = false;
        }

        finally {
            if (cacheFileOutputStream != null) {
                try {
                    cacheFileOutputStream.close();
                } catch (IOException ignore) {
                }
            }
        }

        if (fileExists) {
            ServletOutputStream outputStream = null;
            BufferedInputStream buf = null;
            try {
            	
                outputStream = response.getOutputStream();
                response.setContentType("application/force-download");
                response.setHeader("Content-Transfer-Encoding", "binary");
                response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "private");
                response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + fileName);
                response.setDateHeader("Expires", 0);
                response.setContentLength((int) cacheFile.length());

                FileInputStream input = new FileInputStream(cacheFile);
                buf = new BufferedInputStream(input);
                int readBytes = 0;
                while ((readBytes = buf.read()) != -1) {  
                    outputStream.write(readBytes);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ie) {
                _LOGGER.error("servletoutputStream problem:" + StringUtils.stackTrace(ie));
                fileExists = false;
            }

            finally {

                if (buf != null) {
                    try {
                        buf.close();
                    } catch (IOException ignore) {
                    }
                }
                if (outputStream != null) {
                    try {
                        outputStream.flush();
                        outputStream.close();
                    } catch (IOException ignore) {

                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException
    {
    	 String fileName = (String) URLDecoder.decode(request.getParameter("fileName"), "UTF-8");
        if (fileName == null) {
            response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_NOT_FOUND); // 404.
            return;
        }
       
        File file = new File(filePath, fileName);

        if (!file.exists()) {
            response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_NOT_FOUND); // 404.
            return;
        }

 
        String contentType = getServletContext().getMimeType(file.getName());

        if (contentType == null) {
            contentType = "application/octet-stream";
        }


        response.reset();
        response.setBufferSize(DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);
        response.setContentType(contentType);
        response.setHeader("Content-Length", String.valueOf(file.length()));
        response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=\"" + file.getName() + "\"");
        

        BufferedInputStream input = null;
        BufferedOutputStream output = null;

        try {
            input = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file), DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);
            output = new BufferedOutputStream(response.getOutputStream(), DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);
            byte[] buffer = new byte[DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE];
            int length;
            while ((length = input.read(buffer)) > 0) {
                output.write(buffer, 0, length);
            }
        } finally {
            output.close();
            input.close();
        }
    }

[Charles Latka]

Problem solved. It was not a matter of java code, but IE8 safety settings.
"Automatic prompting for file downloads" should be turned on.

[chetan kapoor]

Did you got any code solution for this

[Ulf Dittmer]

It's a client setting - there's nothing the web app can do about it.

[chetan kapoor]

I need to download mostly pdf files client settings is not an option for me.

[Bear Bibeault]

chetan kapoor wrote:client settings is not an option for me.

Then you are out of luck. You cannot override the settings from code.