I host a PHP Web site that is connected with FX.php to a FileMaker 8 Advanced data base. The database contain PDF stored in multimedia fields (fields that can contain files). I can make links to those files trough Web pages. Ex. :
"http://localhost/fmi/xml/
When I click on the link, a standard File Download dialog box appears and I have to choose whether I want to open or save the file. If I save the file, there is no problem viewing the PDF file. If I choose to open the file, Acrobat Reader opens but the following message appears : "There was an error opening this document. This file cannot be found." I tested it with an excel file and found the same kind of error message. So it is not a Acrobat related problem. It is more on Internet Explorer side. Moreover, it is working perfectly on Safari (Mac) and on Firefox (PC). I think that Internet Explorer either deletes or does not create the temporary file before opening Acrobat Reader.
Any Ideas ??
David St-Onge
Maerix
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Thanks lesouef for your fast answer. Unfortunatly it is not a standard pdf problem since the file is not physicaly stored int the web server folders. The file is stored inside the FileMaker Database in a container field. I can click on the link and download the file and view it without problem. on the other side, If I click Open insted of Save, Acrobat open and display the following error message : "There was an error opening this document. This file cannot be found.". No files are created in temporary internet files and I think it is the problem. The next step is to know why internet explorer is not creating the temp file.
Yes, I tested it on the hosting machine as well as client machines. And yes it may happen in other situation but in this particular situation I am pretty sure that the problem is that IE is deleting or is not creating the temp file before opening Acrobat. The file is OK and the link is OK because I can download the file.
>"There was an error opening this document. This file cannot be found."
>The file is OK and the link is OK because I can download the file.
This is almost certainly an IE problem, not a problem with Filemaker. The exact same symptoms happen on lots of different platforms. I've seen people asking about this error on Apache forums, SQL server forums, JSP/Java forums, and pretty much any platform that might serve a PDF file. The file can be downloaded normally and then opened, but cannot be opened directly in the browser. The fact that you don't have a temporary file is really just a symptom of the problem, which is that IE is not properly handling the PDF file. Possible causes include use of unusual characters in the name of the PDF file, filename conflicts, and browser cache issues. Possible solutions to try:
* Clear your browser cache (IE temporary files)
* Set IE's cache settings to check for new versions of pages every time you visit the page
* Disable the Acrobat browser integration feature
* Rename the PDF file
The basic problem is that IE sucks at handling PDFs (among other things.)
Using an alternative web browser such as FireFox or Opera will of course instantly solve this problem.
If you disable the PDF integration feature, you definitly won't be able to open pdf's in IE! the real fix, your head hurts, chop it off!
btw, why not? this feature is almost a gimmick, why display a pdf in a web page? it is not any quicker than downloading + opening...
this is a much wider debate: nowadays, users want a browser which does everything, but the beast has been done for much less, so this leads to plug-ins done by other people, and compatibility issues for sure.
Maybe it would be time for another range of browsers, capable of handling the most 10 popular formats, and written by a single company for the 3 platforms? But the industry is like this, Apple made Safari, which has even more problems, especially with java stuff (for instance, on then french railway site, you can't order a ticket with safari because some checkboxes just cant' be checked! while it works fine with IE and Firefox). Why has Apple done a new browser, which lead Microsoft to give up theirs for Macs? whihc has no real advantage, is not any faster? a mystery to me.
And I am not sure the pb you have is IE's, it maybe Adobe's problem too; I use 2 pdf generators on my PC, Aoobe distiller and PDFcreator, PDFcreator works better with more apps than the distiller and is much faster, so...
My last rec: move the IE temp folder to a folder close to the root like c:\tmp\web\ instead of the 12th underground of yr disk, to avoid path characters and lengths problems maybe
>And I am not sure the pb you have is IE's, it maybe Adobe's problem too;
I really don't think so, this happens with all sorts of PDFs, including those generated on the fly by application servers running asp, jsp, etc. But it doesn't happen with other browsers, only IE.
Here are some links describing these exact symptoms
http://www.experts-exchang
http://www.experts-exchang
http://groups.google.com/g
I have the same problem with storing documents in a SQL Server environment. I'm storing files in a datatype image field. When directly opening these files in stead of saving them to disk from the application, I get the error that the file cannot be found in a subfolder of the IE temp folder. When I open the app on the localhost it DOES work. There are a few workarounds that I found out:
- using Firefox (maybe other browsers too)
- (in case of .doc files, maybe more) open the program thats intended to open the file u r downloading and then open the file from the application. For some weird reason it does open then.
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by: lesouefPosted on 2006-03-06 at 12:24:21ID: 16117925
Happy to see that the problem can happen vice-versa! Most of the time IE is working (since tested by everybody) and Safari is the problem!
My first guess is a non compatible character in the URL, I have already seen that, the PDF IE plug-in being far from bulletproof.
How big is the file? Where is the PDF plug-in temp folder, have you got spaces in the path? Does it do it on everyfile or just on this site? Has the file a .pdf extension? what is the default startup parameter of the pdf file? some display parameters may not supported by the plug-in or stuff like that...
These are just guesses, no real clues, and this is a very common problem which does not necessarily have a workaround