Question

FireFox: detect from client script if Acrobat reader plug-in installed

Asked by: psyche6

In an ASP.Net application, I need to detect from client script whether Adobe Acrobat reader plug-in is installed or not. That way I can stop users at the login page and tell them to get Acrobat before using my app.

Here's how I can do it for Internet Explorer:

//script in the header
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
PDFOK = true;

function PDFLoadError()
{
    PDFOK = false;
}

// -->
</script>


//then somewhere in the body
    <object height=0 width=0 type="application/pdf" data="pdf/AdobeAcrobatReaderTestFile.pdf" id=Object1 onerror="PDFLoadError()">
    <param name="src" value="AdobeAcrobatReaderTestFile.pdf">
    </object>


//last thing in the file
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
 if(!PDFOK)
 {
     document.form1.btLogin.disabled = true; //so can't proceed through application
     // some kind of message to get Acrobat
 }
// -->
</script>


This works because the <object> tag throws the onerror event in Internet Explorer if the object doesn't render properly (because the Acrobat plug-in isn't available).

However, it doesn't work in FireFox - the onerror event is not getting thrown. I know an error is being thrown somewhere, because FireFox displays a message bar at the top saying that "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page" and a button to "Install Missing Plugins". Is there any way I can access this error / event from client script?

Alternately, is there any way in FireFox to detect in client script whether Adobe Acrobat reader plug-in is installed or not?

Thanks all.

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Asked On
2007-02-09 at 16:43:27ID22157278
Tags

firefox

,

reader

,

adobe

,

detect

Topic

Web Browsers

Participating Experts
3
Points
0
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: mtz1of4Posted on 2007-02-10 at 11:33:25ID: 18508068

I'm confused.  If firefox is doing your work for you, why not let it?

I will search though and see if  I can find an answer.

 

by: mtz1of4Posted on 2007-02-10 at 11:56:01ID: 18508116

By the way, what happens if I have the Foxit PDF reader installed and not Adobe's?
 The free Foxit PDF Reader (at this point in time) does not have a Plug-in that opens a PDF In The Browser window. It has to download, then open it.

 

by: psyche6Posted on 2007-02-12 at 10:48:21ID: 18517214

Kudos to FireFox for notifying the user that the content requires a plug-in that is not installed and giving them a way to get it.

However, my problem is that I want to STOP the user from continuing through the application if they don't have an PDF reader plug-in installed. To do this, I need to be able to write client script that either detects the absence of the plug-in directly, or catches an error when the object (or IFrame) tag cannot render the .pdf type.

This application collects data from the user, updates our database with the data, then creates and presents the user with a pdf form based on that data. Also, a lot of our users are not very computer savy. Most of them won't understand the message from FireFox that they need to install a plug-in, and will just continue through the application (sometimes several times) until they finally call us to say that they can't find the form that the application says they should see. This would leave records in our database for forms the users never received, which is unacceptable for this application. I need to stop the user at the login screen (by not enabling the login button) if they don't have a pdf reader plug-in installed.

By the way, while Internet Explorer throws a trapable error if the <OBJECT> object cannot render its content; if you don't trap the error in client script, IE does nothing at all - just goes on its way with no notification to the user. Go figure!!

Thanks for your help.

 

by: psyche6Posted on 2007-02-12 at 11:11:13ID: 18517445

Sorry - I didn't answer the second part of your question.

I didn't even know that there was a Foxit PDF reader. I'm just installing (and uninstalling) Adobe Reader 7.0.8 (AdbeRdr708_en_US.exe) for testing.

The application works fine in FireFox with the Adobe reader installed - the PDF displays correctly in the browser from the <OBJECT> tag and the Adobe print dialog box pops up when it should.

Thnaks again.

 

by: psyche6Posted on 2007-02-13 at 15:23:40ID: 18527219

Thanks to anyone who looked at this. I finally got it working and I'm going to close this question. Here's what I did, if it can help anyone else:


//This script in in the header block
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
//Global variables
BrowserName = "<%=Request.Browser.Browser%>"
FireFoxPDFOK = false;
InternetExplorerPDFOK = false;

//Functions
function PDFLoadError()
{
    InternetExplorerPDFOK = false;
}

//In line code
if(BrowserName == "Firefox")
{
    FireFoxAdobePlugIn = navigator.plugins["Adobe Acrobat"];
    if(FireFoxAdobePlugIn != null && FireFoxAdobePlugIn.description.length > 0) FireFoxPDFOK = true;
}
else if(BrowserName == "IE") InternetExplorerPDFOK = true;

// -->
</script>



//This object tag is in the body. Note that it links to a test PDF file. In Internet Explorer, if the PDF file fails to
//load (because Adobe Reader plug-in is not there) it will fire the PDFLoadError event above.
    <object height=0 width=0 type="application/pdf" data="pdf/AdobeAcrobatReaderTestFile.pdf" id=Object1 onerror="PDFLoadError()">
    <param name="src" value="AdobeAcrobatReaderTestFile.pdf">
    </object>



//This script block goes at the end in the body (AFTER the object tag above)
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
if(BrowserName != "IE" && BrowserName != "Firefox")
{
      //Message saying can only use IE or Firefox as browser
      //Do something to disable application, such as disable login button
}
else if(!( (BrowserName == "Firefox" && FireFoxPDFOK) || (BrowserName == "IE" && InternetExplorerPDFOK) ) )
{
      //Message saying Adobe Reader plug-in not loaded, go get Adobe Acrobat Reader
      //Do something to disable application, such as disable login button
{

// -->
</script>

 

by: mtz1of4Posted on 2007-02-14 at 06:45:06ID: 18531499

Nice job, thanks for the update and the fix.
Now go get your points back.  No objections from me.
http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi70

 

by: Computer101Posted on 2007-05-15 at 19:56:37ID: 19098053

PAQed with points refunded (500)

Computer101
EE Admin

 

by: mplungjanPosted on 2009-04-14 at 05:20:43ID: 24137319

Here is a better one since it does not rely on loading a PDF file at all

Modified from
http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/view/cs_msg/4055

<script type="text/javascript">
var acrobat=new Object();
acrobat.installed=false;
acrobat.version='0.0';
 
if (navigator.plugins && navigator.plugins.length){
  for ( var x = 0, l = navigator.plugins.length; x < l; ++x ) {
    if (navigator.plugins[x].description.indexOf('Adobe Acrobat') != -1 || navigator.plugins[x].description.indexOf('PDF') != -1) {
      acrobat.version=(navigator.plugins[x].description.indexOf('PDF')!=-1)?'7+':parseFloat(navigator.plugins[x].description.split('Version ')[1]);
      if (acrobat.version.toString().length == 1) acrobat.version+='.0';
      acrobat.installed=true;
      break;
    }
  }
}
else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
  for (x=2; x<10; x++) {
    try {
      oAcro=eval("new ActiveXObject('PDF.PdfCtrl."+x+"');");
      if (oAcro) {
        acrobat.installed=true;
        acrobat.version=x+'.0'; 
      }
    }
    catch(e) {}
  }
  try {
    oAcro4=new ActiveXObject('PDF.PdfCtrl.1');
    if (oAcro4) {
      acrobat.installed=true;
      acrobat.version='4.0';
    }
  }
  catch(e) {}
  try {
    oAcro7=new ActiveXObject('AcroPDF.PDF.1');
    if (oAcro7) {
      acrobat.installed=true;
      acrobat.version='7+';
    }
  }
  catch(e) {}
}
 
alert (acrobat.version);
</script>

                                              
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