Ticket ID: 21718 Creation Date: 6/9/2015 6:48 PM Product: SiteKiosk Classic Windows Attachment: -
TicketType: Support Request Version: 8.91.3042 Language: English
Views: 28160 Last Modification Date: 7/10/2015 10:08 PM Platform:
Level: Closed

Support Request: Download Loop and Crash

Description

I am part of the Enrollment IT team from Washington State University, and this has been an ongoing issue for about a month. We manage two computers which have been designated as kiosks for use by students who need to access specific forms made available by the Student Clearing House. Everything works fine with the SiteKiosk software except for downloads, which only work correctly on some of the required links. Specifically, with any link that opens the PDF document within a new IE frame, it will work every time and allows essential aspects like printing. For any link that redirects to a direct download, however, SiteKiosk breaks by entering an endless loop of navigating to the file and then ultimately crashing after a few minutes. Our team has confirmed that the issue is not with the config file with regards to what has been granted access or not, as well as allowing downloads to specific locations on the computer. After further troubleshooting, it appears that the issue surrounds Internet Explorer's handling of file downloads. In IE 9 and above, file downloads are managed via a banner at the bottom of the screen and not a standalone window as was seen in earlier versions. After testing IE 8's compatibility with the download links within SiteKiosk 7, the file successfully downloads, showing a download window, and then opens as expected. This leads us to believe that there is an issue in SiteKiosk 8 with regards to how it handles a direct download. Because the newer versions of IE utilize a banner instead of a window, even using the same config file that worked flawlessly in SiteKiosk 7 proves unsuccessful when handling this specific type of link. Is there a workaround for the banner "Open/Save" menu in IE versions 9 and above for SiteKiosk? Outside of the software, things work as expected save for IE 11 which was announced by the owner of the website to not be compatible. Again, all other links which simply open the file in a new IE frame work fine, but those which redirect to a download get stuck in a loop which crashes the system.

Running:

SiteKiosk 8.91.3042 (latest)
Internet Explorer 10

Answer: (4)
Re: Download Loop and Crash 6/10/2015 3:21 PM
Do you get the same behavior when trying to open a PDF from the following link:
http://www.provisio.com/en-US/Downloads/Default.aspx?GroupId=9




You can try to enable the IE download dialog in SiteKiosk to resolve the issue. Do the following to use the Internet Explorer download dialog box instead of the SiteKiosk download manager.

1. Right-click your configuration file and open with Notepad.
2. Press Ctrl+F and search for the following line:

<msdownloaddlg-urls />

3. Replace the line you found in step 2 with the following:

<msdownloaddlg-urls>
<url> http://aWebPage.com/ </url>
</msdownloaddlg-urls>

The URL line stands for the URL you want to allow the IE download dialog for. Replace http://aWebPage.com/ with the URL you are downloading from.
Re: Download Loop and Crash 6/10/2015 9:11 PM
Hello,

I have done what you recommended and here were my results. First, all of the links provided by the URL you supplied download and open as expected. The PDFs will prompt a new IE window frame to be opened and the PDF opens like it normally should. This is the same behavior that we see with any other links within SiteKiosk except for the Student Clearing House's Self Service portal. I applied the download dialog changes in the config file to allow the portal's web address (https://secure.studentclearinghouse.org/sssportalui/). This change did not fix the PDF downloading and opening issue from this website. Does the config file need to have the full address? The reason I ask is because since this is a page a student can access post login, the url has randomly generated number endings on a per user basis (the PDFs are custom generated for each individual user). I have contacted the Student Clearing House regarding how they handle their PDF download links but they have not gotten back to me as of yet.

Thanks.
Re: Download Loop and Crash 6/10/2015 9:46 PM
Note:
using the following will enable the IE download dialog for all downloads.

<msdownloaddlg-urls>
<url>http://*</url>
<url>https://*</url>
</msdownloaddlg-urls>


The customer at this support forum ticket has resolved the same issue you are seeing with this solution. https://www.provisio.com/CustomerSupportCenter/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=20305

If that does not resolve your issue and you cannot provide test credentials, you could try to open the PDF in Reader instead of the browser as a work around but I cannot guarantee that will work. Please advise and I will send those instructions.
Re: Download Loop and Crash 6/12/2015 9:20 PM
Thank you very much Grant! All is working as expected now. The problematic links now prompt the user to either open or save the PDF in a new window, and opening the PDF opens within Adobe Reader. Again, thanks, and I appreciate all the help.
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