Relative URL Problem

[OccasionalFlyer]

I know this is probably a typo I just can't see, but, I cna't figure
out why my browser can't find a document on my site. My markup has:
<a href="../IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/
IBRMarch72011Minutes.pdf">*.pdf [Acrobat]</a>;&nbsp;
<a href="../IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/
IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx">*.docx [Word]</a></td>

The .pdf file is found, but the .docx file is not. Yet, if I get
Filezilla to copy its URL to the clipboard, I get (minus the
irrelevant stuff up front)
IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx

That looks the same as my markup to me. I am referencing both
documents from a parallel subdirectory, which is why I need to go up a
level. I don't know why the person before me created a minutes
directory but then seemingly ignored it and put stuff in the News
directory but I've just tried to fix this in what I'm adding. If it
works for the .pdf file, why does it not work for the .docx file?
I've copied and pasted the URL from Filezilla three times, looking for
typing mistakes around it each time, but to no avail. The URL that
presents these links is
http://www.ibr-bbr.org/IBR_News.aspx

Viewing the page source was unenlightening to me but there must be
something simple I'm not seeing. Any suggestions please? I feel dumb
asking this because it really ought to work or I should see the
problem. Thanks.

Ken

 

[Andy]

I know this is probably a typo I just can't see, but, I cna't figure
out why my browser can't find a document on my site. My markup has:
<a href="../IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/
IBRMarch72011Minutes.pdf">*.pdf [Acrobat]</a>;&nbsp;
<a href="../IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/
IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx">*.docx [Word]</a></td>

The .pdf file is found, but the .docx file is not. Yet, if I get
Filezilla to copy its URL to the clipboard, I get (minus the
irrelevant stuff up front)
IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx

That looks the same as my markup to me. I am referencing both
documents from a parallel subdirectory, which is why I need to go up a
level. I don't know why the person before me created a minutes
directory but then seemingly ignored it and put stuff in the News
directory but I've just tried to fix this in what I'm adding. If it
works for the .pdf file, why does it not work for the .docx file?
I've copied and pasted the URL from Filezilla three times, looking for
typing mistakes around it each time, but to no avail. The URL that
presents these links is
http://www.ibr-bbr.org/IBR_News.aspx

Viewing the page source was unenlightening to me but there must be
something simple I'm not seeing. Any suggestions please? I feel dumb
asking this because it really ought to work or I should see the
problem. Thanks.

Ken

Hi Ken,

Try saving and linking the word documents as .doc files instead of .docx


Andy

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

<a href="../IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/
IBRMarch72011Minutes.pdf">*.pdf [Acrobat]</a>;&nbsp;
<a href="../IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/
IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx">*.docx [Word]</a></td>

(By the way, the explanation "[Acrobat]" is pointless and misleading.
First, Adobe Acrobat Reader was renamed to Adobe Reader years ago.
Second, there are many other programs that can read PDF format. Just say
"(PDF)".)

The .pdf file is found, but the .docx file is not. Yet, if I get
Filezilla to copy its URL to the clipboard, I get (minus the
irrelevant stuff up front)
IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx

The only thing others can see from outside is that the URL
http://www.ibr-bbr.org/IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx
does not correspond to any resource, according to the server. The server
sends a 404 response, so this is not a data format error or anything
like that. If you try to access that URL directly by entering its
address to a browser's address field, it will probably fail. This means
that the issue has nothing to do with HTML.

I've copied and pasted the URL from Filezilla three times, looking for
typing mistakes around it each time, but to no avail.

It's possible to configure a web server to return a 404 response for a
URL that ends with .docx. That would be odd, but what else could we
suggest? In fact, the other .docx URL,
http://www.ibr-bbr.org/IBRNews/IBR BoD minutes Mar 2010 website2.docx
causes a 404 response, too.

There's normally little reason to use .docx format on the Web, as .doc
format (or .rtf format) works more widely. There are some features in
..docx that aren't supported in .doc, like the nice new Math editor
formulas, but I suspect they are not needed in normal minutes.

 

[Brian Cryer]

I know this is probably a typo I just can't see, but, I cna't figure
out why my browser can't find a document on my site. My markup has:
<a href="../IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/
IBRMarch72011Minutes.pdf">*.pdf [Acrobat]</a>;&nbsp;
<a href="../IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/
IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx">*.docx [Word]</a></td>

The .pdf file is found, but the .docx file is not. Yet, if I get
Filezilla to copy its URL to the clipboard, I get (minus the
irrelevant stuff up front)
IBRMinutes/Board_Minutes_March_2011/IBRMarch72011Minutes.docx

Can't see anything amis - other than it failing to return.

What do you see in your web-logs when the request is made for the .docx
file? On the face of it I'm inclined to agree with Jukka that it may be some
configuration on the web-server (although that would be unusual).

Got it, I think. Yes, Jukka was on the right track. From the headers I can
see from your webserver its IIS 6, so take a look at:
http://jameskovacs.com/2007/10/11/configuring-iis6-to-serve-office-2007-file-formats/

Hope this helps.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

Got it, I think. Yes, Jukka was on the right track. From the headers I
can see from your webserver its IIS 6, so take a look at:
http://jameskovacs.com/2007/10/11/configuring-iis6-to-serve-office-2007-file-formats/

I bet you are on to something, but what I cannot understand is why IIS
doesn't just handle the unknown filetype like Apache as generic
application/octet-stream?

 

[Brian Cryer]

I bet you are on to something, but what I cannot understand is why IIS
doesn't just handle the unknown filetype like Apache as generic
application/octet-stream?

I agree entirely, that would seem to be the sensible thing to do. It might
be interesting to know the rational behind it. I wonder if IIS 7 is any
different?

 

[OccasionalFlyer]

I agree entirely, that would seem to be the sensible thing to do. It might
be interesting to know the rational behind it. I wonder if IIS 7 is any
different?

Thanks everyone. Making a .doc file fixed the problem.

Ken

 

[OccasionalFlyer]

I agree entirely, that would seem to be the sensible thing to do. It might
be interesting to know the rational behind it. I wonder if IIS 7 is any
different?

I don't understand why my response to this isn't showing up but in any
case, thanks everyone. Changing the file type to .doc worked fine.

Ken