Can't attach random-access file

[PhilOfPerth]

I've just submitted a game, which requires a random-access word-list file. I tried to use the Attach File function at the bottom of the page, and it went through all the motions of attaching the file, but the attachment is not showing on the post. Are random-access text files allowed?

[SMcNeill]

The forums limit what's allowable as attachment by file extension.   If you've saved it in some extension that the forums don't recognize (filelist.ra for example), then it's not going to work.

Two choices in this case:
1) Compress it up into a ZIP file and offer it in .zip, .rar, .7z format
2) Change the extension to something more common such as filelist.ra to filelist.txt.

[PhilOfPerth]

It's plain text, saved without an extension. Maybe I need to add a .txt extension?
(sorry, posted before I saw the last bit of your post)
I'll probably use 7zip
Quick edit: Have done that, and it worked. Thanks Steve!

[SMcNeill]

It's plain text, saved without an extension. Maybe I need to add a .txt extension?

That's the whole issue in a nutshell.  Web traffic has various rules for transferring data properly, so just anything you ever share on the net is going to need some sort of extension to identify it.   In this case, you could've just added that .txt extension and it would've worked fine.  Without an extension, it doesn't know how to deal with things (is it a sound to play, or a video, or text, or an image, or what??), so whenever it comes to almost anything you share on the web it'll need that extension for properly storing and processing it. 

(Or need to be inside a zip/7z/tar/rar type file, which it knows how to handle due to their extensions.  )

[Pete]

It's for our protection, you know, like the  'Patriot Act'. The Tapatalk host is even worse. Try to put up a file extension it doesn't like and you get an automatic temporary ban. It doesn't care if I am the owner/admin of The QBasic Forum, it decides what is best. Fortunately zip files seem to be universally accepted. I guess the one extra layer of protection where we have to extract before running a file is enough to pass mustard. My rule of thumb... When attaching a file, zip it!

Pete

[PhilOfPerth]

Sounds like a good rule to adopt - I'll do that in future. Just curious: Do the files inside a .zip heve to have a suffix too, or is the .zip enough?

[JRace]

Files inside a .zip can have any name.extension you want.

(BTW: some antivirus suites will look for bad stuff inside archive files.  If that ever becomes a problem for you, then password-protect the archive and give the password in your accompanying post/email/whatever.)

[PhilOfPerth]

Files inside a .zip can have any name.extension you want.

(BTW: some antivirus suites will look for bad stuff inside archive files.  If that ever becomes a problem for you, then password-protect the archive and give the password in your accompanying post/email/whatever.)

Thanks for the info and advice. Much appreciated.