Posted by Sheldon Glickler on 01/08/08 16:50

Harlan Messinger wrote:
> Sheldon Glickler wrote:
>> Harlan Messinger wrote:
>>> Sheldon Glickler wrote:
>>>> I want to be able to download a file. If the file is a zip or an
>>>> exe, the user is asked where to save the file
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm confused. First you say that *you* want to be able to download a
>>> file, and then you imply that you're talking about someone else.
>>
>> The customer wants to limit the number of downloads and he doesn't
>> want the pdf to display to the user. He wants the user to display it
>> on his own after he has downloaded it. I know this is silly since
>> once the user has downloaded the file, he can always copy it to any
>> number of machines, but the customer IS the customer.....
>
> If site is for use by the customer's employees, then the customer can
> have the employees' browsers configured to prompt the user. If it's for
> your customer's customers, it isn't any of *his* business and it doesn't
> make any sense anyway. Have you tried discussing this with your
> customer? Maybe you have, but I'm always surprised by the number of

I had already passed on this information to my bossthat the customer's
request is silly. He said he had talked with them, but that is what
they wanted.

> people who assume outright that customers never want to hear advice and
> feedback from the knowledgable people performing work for them. A
> constructive approach is not to criticize the instructions but to point
> out likely *consequences* that "you may not have thought about", including:
>
> * consequences that may be undesirable
> * consequences that will be at odds with other stated
> purposes of the customer himself
> * consequences that will eliminate any perceived benefit
> * the consequence that the requested feature won't actually
> have the effect that the customer assumed it would
> have when he requested it, which means he'll be
> spending money for nothing
>
> I haven't always convinced the customer by following this approach, but:
>
> * it has often helped clarify things
> for customers that weren't
> previously clear to them,
> * I have often directed customers
> to solutions that they like better
> than the ones they had conceived
> for themselves,
> * I have often gotten a better understanding
> of why they requested *their* approach,
> which helped me do a better job of
> fulfilling the request OR of making an
> even *better* counter-suggestion,
> * I have usually gotten credit for being
> helpful and attentive--the customers
> have liked knowing that I'm paying
> attention, and
> * the response has never been "How dare you
> question me?" and has rarely been even
> milder form of that retort.
>
> In your case, has your customer considered the possibility that not all
> his users will be able to find a file after having downloaded it? What
> is their level of sophistication?
>
> It isn't clear to *me* how prompting the user to save the files will
> have the effect of limiting the number that they download. Is it clear
> to you? Anyway, the way to accomplish that is by linking to a
> pass-through routine rather than to the documents themselves, one that
> keeps either a session counter (if the limit is per-session) or a
> database-based counter (if the limit is per authenticated user) and
> checks it before feeding the content of the document to the user.

Can you explain this "pass-through" routine?

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