Opening a TIFF File from the Web Browser

Question

I checked previous questions here on SO but I think I want my functionality to work a little different. I understand that .tif files are not natively supported in Internet Explorer and that an extension, such as AlternaTIFF, are available to remedy this. However, I would like the dialog to show up where the user can either save/open the file on the client side. I know that MS Windows Picture and Fax Viewer can open them, no problems.

The files are located on our servers and this will be an intranet site. Currently, I have a link to the files populate in the view but again, I'd like that option for the user to Save/Open the file.

I'm using MVC, which I'm a little unfamiliar with, and can't seem to figure this one out. Thank you.

Answer 1

You can do an action that returns a tiff by changing the headers so when someone clicks the link the file will get downloaded or using FileResult.

Example with FileResult (i find it easier): http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=807

For saving them is just like uploading any file with MVC. This post can be useful http://haacked.com/archive/2010/07/16/uploading-files-with-aspnetmvc.aspx

My advice is that you convert them to .jpg or .png when uploaded using GDI+.

//You first upload the tiff to the server like the post above explains
//And then open and convert it to .JPEG
Bitmap bm = Bitmap.FromFile("mypic.tiff");
bm.Save("mypic.jpg",ImageFormat.JPEG);

And if you already have the urls of all the tiffs, you can always do a console app to convert all of them. Even if you need to use tiffs its a good idea to have .jpg versions to show on the web. You can even resize them to create previews and save some bandwith too! :-)