byte serving with apache??

[goBoating]

I have server thousand public domain docs in PDF format that I need to distribute over the web. My system has a search interface which enables users to search the collection for relevant docs, preview the pages returned by the search, and then download the full doc if they want it. Problem is that the PDF files are large, 10 megs and larger, up to 70 megs. Currently, the user's browser downloads the entire PDF before displaying the specified page. I have seen several references in the Adobe PDF documentation to setting up Apache to do 'byte serving', thus enabling the delivery of the desired page first. Does anyone know anything about doing this?

Thanks




keep the rudder amid ship and beware the odd typo

 

[evwijk]

Hi,

I'm not quite sure but you might want to have a look at the PDF possibilities that PHP4 offers. I believe PHP can handle this problem for you.

Good luck.

 

[goBoating]

Thanks for the thought. Your response reminded me to come back and post my solution. The 'byte-serving' trick is Apache's default behavior.

When I went to the Adobe web page or my Acrobat documentation, they both refered to setting up the web server to do this trick. Consequently, I went looking for documentation about how to get Apache to do it. Well, the only thing that really needed to be done was to save the PDF's with the Acrobat 'optimize' option. That being done, the requested page from inside a PDF file downloads and displays and then the rest of the file downlods in the back ground. Problem solved.

Thanks again,



keep the rudder amid ship and beware the odd typo