xmlinternet-explorer-8ihttphandlerresponse.contenttype
Why is Internet Explorer (8) thinking this is XML
This is the Raw response that is generated from the server (using Fiddler2)
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.0
X-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
MS-Author-Via: MS-FP/4.0
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:19:18 GMT
Content-Length: 594
Contents of 24194_XXXXXXXXXX.log as of 10/12/2010 19:19:18
w3wp.exe Information: 0 : START: New Alarm [9]
w3wp.exe Information: 0 : 12/10/2010 19:14:56 - <?xml version="1.0"?>
<CALLS>
<CALL>
<CALL_ID>9_1</CALL_ID>
<BODY>004|007|015|058|1_ToConfirm|2_ToDecline</BODY>
<LANGID>321</LANGID>
<TO1>99999999999</TO1>
<TO2 />
</CALL>
</CALLS>
w3wp.exe Information: 0 : END: New Alarm [9]
w3wp.exe Information: 0 : 12/10/2010 19:15:30 - <RESULT><CALL_ID>9_1</CALL_ID><CALLRESULT1>0</CALLRESULT1><DTMF1>2</DTMF1><CALLRESULT2></CALLRESULT2><DTMF2></DTMF2></RESULT>
In my asp.net IHttpHandler I have set
context.Response.ContentType = "text/plain";
Which it is clearly returning. In IE8 I get to see this:
When I try the Save Target As... I get this (Notice the Save as type:):
Solution
IE is kind of notorious for second-guessing the content type. Presumably they're doing content-sniffing and the <?xml version="1.0"?> is tripping it up.
Try using a different content type other than text/plain or application/octet-stream to see if you get the same behavior. It's looks like it only does the sniffing for those two types in an attempt to work around misconfigured web servers:
See also http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms775147(VS.85).aspx#introduction