Question

PDF links not opening in IE7, but OK in Firefox

Asked by: developedtester

"file:///c:/test/help/content/PDF/dh-30.pdf" doesn't open in IE7 on vista or XP.  It will "save as" just fine, but it will not open.  It does work fine in Firefox.  "Open in new window" doesn't work either.  In IE it does nothing when I click on it...no errors or anything.  The html file has <a href="../PDF/dh-30.pdf">.  I know Firefox is better and everyone should use it rather than IE, but...

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Asked On
2009-04-20 at 06:12:34ID24337423
Topics

Web Browsers

,

WebApplications

,

General Multi-Media Software

Participating Experts
3
Points
0
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: mplungjanPosted on 2009-04-20 at 06:15:18ID: 24184210

Actually normally FF would NOT open such a link and IE would so not so sure about which one is better... It is a security issue in my opinion.

 

by: lamaslanyPosted on 2009-04-20 at 06:34:44ID: 24184388

In IE7 click Tools | Manage Add-ons

You should see Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper listed as an enabled, currently loaded, browser help object.

Is this the case?

 

by: developedtesterPosted on 2009-04-20 at 07:03:16ID: 24184672

It is enable.

 

by: xtreminatorPosted on 2009-04-20 at 07:16:00ID: 24184785

It could be ur IE add-on problem

to check this

first open adobe reader in your computer and minimize it, now open your link in IE
in your case file:///c:/test/help/content/PDF/dh-30.pdf.
if it will be directly opened by adobe reader  opened previously, then it could be IE add-on problem.

 

by: developedtesterPosted on 2009-04-20 at 07:30:04ID: 24184929

I should have added that I've tried a ton of stuff including uninstalling Reader, enabling/disabling the Reader plug-in, checking registry, etc.  Also, I can just type in the URL and the PDF opens fine inside of IE....WIERD!    I've tried a bunch of security setting and nothing worked there.   Thanks for the help folks.  This is driving me nuts.  

 

by: developedtesterPosted on 2009-04-20 at 08:11:23ID: 24185369

Also, non-local PDFs open fine.  So I'm thinking it's some security setting, but I've tried just about all of them.

 

by: lamaslanyPosted on 2009-04-20 at 09:13:55ID: 24185984

Out of interest:

Have you tried configuring Adobe Reader to not open PDF's in the browser?

Click Edit | Preferences
Click 'Internet'
Deselect 'Display PDF in browser'

 

by: developedtesterPosted on 2009-04-20 at 11:43:18ID: 24187394

I tried turning it off and it seemed to work ;)  IE it didn't work to begin with.  But I did turn it back on and restart IE and crossed my fingers.  No luck.

I did find a related EE response that had this code below and when I took out all the HTML except the "click here PDF" link, then added the 2 lines below, it started working:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Web_Development/Document_Imaging/Adobe_Acrobat/Q_22852450.html

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=document.pdf");
Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", buffer.Length.ToString());

This is MadCap generated HTML and there are issues with PDFs, but I can find any that seem to be exactly like this.  Help?

 

by: developedtesterPosted on 2009-04-20 at 11:53:37ID: 24187472

I know this is server code, but it's the only thing I've found that gets it working.

 

by: developedtesterPosted on 2009-04-24 at 12:45:00ID: 24228543

I've tried to change the security setting in IE to "Allow active content to run in file on MyComputer" and that didn't work.  What wierd is if I put the URL in the address bar it opens the PDF in the browser just fine.  It seems like it must be some javascript setting...anyone?  I'm using Adobe Reader 9.  Also, I'm trying all these things on my XP and Vista boxes and they both do the same thing.

 

by: developedtesterPosted on 2009-04-27 at 06:35:59ID: 24241476

I found out that it is a madcap/javascript thing.  I don't know the exact details, but their website forum has:

 Flare inserts a line of code in each topic at compile time that tricks Internet Explorer into thinking that it's viewing the help from a public website and not from your local computer.

Which obviously doesn't work with IE anymore.  And so which browser is mroe secure? ;)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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