File 'URLOpen_blob' not found

I got this error message when clicking on a link on a web page. I think the link was to download a file – it was some time back. What does it mean?
The browser was Iris of February last year – got the latest version now and haven’t had the error message with the new version yet. The cog was on the error message.

A blob is a Binary Large OBject. It’s an annoying sort of in-band easy of sending data to a browser that seems to exist as in-memory metadata rather than an actual file that gets cached.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_large_object

No idea how to access it under RISC OS. I don’t think you’re really supposed to see them, it’s something that tends to happen in the background.

Thanks for reply and reference. I knew that a blob is a chunk of binary code, but not the rest.

I tried running Berkeley’s Snap! blocks programming language via Iris, and it worked rather better than MIT’s Scratch (it must have a West Coast preference). But when I came to save a program to the local computer (Pi 400), I got instead that same message

File ‘URLOpen_blob’ not found

Those of us interested enough to try out the beta versions of Iris still don’t have a report tracker site like for TCP/IP 7.x or NetSurf, so when we find something to say, I think we should just drop a line to Andrew at riscosdev.com

Edit: done so.

Blobs and data: URLs generally can’t be exported from browsers.

Is there any progress on this problem yet? I am now getting this on my bank’s website when I attempt to download a file since they said they have ‘upgraded’ the website to “make it easier for users” – usually bad news for RISC OS users in my experience.

Hmm I remember seeing this in a version of Iris, but discovered that if you right clicked on the link to download a file it actually did work, it opens a new tab with the file save box.

I am now using v1.028 of Iris and it works in that version and 1.027 as well. So try right clicking rather then the usual left click and see if it works.

The problem is that most of the reports we have had have been for bank websites with which we do not have accounts. This makes testing rather difficult/awkward.

If someone has an example site that requires minimal “setup” (ie. a quick walkthrough along the lines of… go here, click this, see error ) then that would be extremely helpful, and likely lead to a fix.

The simpler the site the better, really, as less “noise” on the page will make it simpler to track the problem.

So, please drop us an email if you find something that fits the bill, and I’ll see if we can’t get it sorted. :)

@Chris
I wanted to copy in your second paragraph and comment on it, but CTRL V doesn’t work on my Iris V1.028!

Anyhow your tip doesn’t work on the Co-op bank website: A new tab does appear with just the message “The URL can’t be shown” where the text in the URL field is of the following form.
http://blob:https://bank.co-operativebank.co.uk/ZZZZZ…..ZZZ
where ZZZZZ…..ZZ is a string of alphanumeric characters.
I tried getting the cursor in that URL field, pressed Enter, but nothing happened.

If I left click for download, the same page returns with no download.
:-(