Download PDF through browser authentication with javascript

Question

I understand that I can do browser authentication with Javascript, and then grab, say, an XML file with that javascript. My use case is a bit different though: There's a link on a webpage to a PDF on a different server. That server does browser authentication. The username and password are NOT secrets, in fact right now, we publish the link like this:

"Download PDF (use guest/guest as username/password)".

What I need: the user clicks the link, but does NOT have to fill in the username/pass, because we see many users getting confused by this (in usability tests).

We do not have access to the other server where the PDF is hosted.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

This URL is a test case: http://mis.vlaanderen.be/cognos7/metadata/mp_v_i_im_020_e100_az_algemeen_overzicht.pdf

The username is "gast", the password is "gast" (as it says in the authentication box).

If you can embed that in a page in a link, and make it open without triggering the browser authentication box, you're my hero :)

Answer 2

You can write the link like this: http://gast:[email protected]/cognos7/metadata/mp_v_i_im_020_e100_az_algemeen_overzicht.pdf

Answer 3

http://gast:[email protected]/file.pdf

Answer 4

I am looking for a solution that works in IE6/7...