How to register ZIP files with Open Data already stored on our agency's website

[RandyKreuziger]

On our current data download site we have several ZIP files that contain more than just data.  For example, some may contain a geodabase along with layer files, mxds and ArcMap Addin all in that single ZIP file.  As we ready our new Open Data site I thought I could make this data available by registering it with ArcGIS Online as an "Item from the Web" of type "Document."  I shared it to Open Data and all looked good until I noticed that every time I clicked on the item in OD the ZIP file was downloading in the background instead of just downloading it when clicking on the Open button.

In other cases the ZIP file contains several feature classes in a fgdb but the whole zip file is getting recreated one a month as a automated process.  Anyone downloading the data really needs all the individual feature classes in the fgdb to insure they use the data correctly.

Is there a way to have an entry in Open Data that points to the ZIP files stored on the Internet elsewhere for the two use cases mentioned above?

Thanks

[Aaron_DeBoer]

I was curious about a similar issue; I would like to ZIP CAD topographic layer files, and attach it to the hosted layers on our open data geohub.  I know I read somewhere that this was possible, but I can't figure out where to store the URL to that ZIP file.  I'm drawing a blank on the terminology; was it "alternative download" or something like that?