I have noticed some unusual behavior with Internet Explorer 6 that’s worth taking note of. I have a link on my site to a script that outputs an XML file to the browser with the below code:
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$filename.'"');
@readfile($file);
When the popular IE setting “Reuse Window for Launching Shortcuts” is unchecked (access this setting in the Tools Menu > Internet Options > Advanced Tab) this script will output the file to the browser and open it in a different window if the user clicks the open button on the IE prompt. However, if this setting is checked, and browser windows are being re-used, then it will open up on top of the page where the link was clicked to access the script.
If I instead set the html link target option to be “_blank”, the script will open up in a new window as expected if the “Reuse Window for Launching Shortcuts” is checked. But, if the setting is unchecked, the output XML file will open up in a new window and there will be another blank window also open that has the address of the script, in addition to our original window.
This is far from ideal, and there is no way of knowing whether users have this option checked or not. We are stuck with the distinct possibility of half of our visitors seeing either an annoying third blank window being opened or the script writing over their original window, depending on their “Reuse Window for Launching Shortcuts” setting.