149698 - PDF file doesn't display if Acrobat Reader is already running

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core Graveyard :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[Loren Rosen]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.0.0) Gecko/20020529
BuildID:    2002052918

If you don't have any helper application set in Mozilla for pdf files, and no
plug-in, Mozilla evidently defaults to using the MacOSX mapping for the .pdf
extension. If this is set to the Acrobat Reader, and the reader is already open,
when a pdf file is downloaded, the focus changes to the reader but no window for
the new pdf file is created.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. set Reader as the default viewer for pdf files in MacOSX (using show info)
2. remove any acrobat plug-ins, pdf helper designations from Mozilla
3. start-up the Acrobat Reader
4. visit a web page in Mozilla with a link to a pdf file
5. click on the link

Actual Results:  Reader gets the focus, but doesn't create a window for the pdf file

Expected Results:  Reader gets the focus and creates a new window viewing the
pdf file

This could be held to be a documentation issue, since there is a simple
workaround (create helper application entries for pdf files). But as it stands
users will be confused since out-of-the-box Mozilla will half-work on pdf files
(and will work correctly on many other kinds of files).

Comment 1

[Greg K.]

Loren, please provide the URL you're using to reproduce this problem.

Comment 2

[Loren Rosen]

added a somewhat randomly choosen URL that illustrates the problem. Click on the
link on this page that says "Full text available as: Acrobat PDF (.pdf)". Note
that the problem is hardly restricted to just this URL.

Comment 3

[Greg K.]

WorksForMe using FizzillaCFM/2002052918 (rv1.0.0) and Acrobat Reader 5.0.5. After clicking 
the PDF link, the Download dialog is shown indicating the file will be handled by Reader. Then, 
the Download Progress dialog is shown. Once download finishes, the PDF is displayed by 
Reader.

Loren, are any errors generated on the Console during this operation? Have you tried reinstalling 
Acrobat Reader? How about using a new Mozilla user profile? Do other OS X browsers 
successfully hand PDF files off to your running copy of Acrobat Reader?

Comment 4

[Greg K.]

Loren, still awaiting your response to Comment #3.

-->File Handling.

Comment 5

[Loren Rosen]

are any errors generated on the Console during this operation? 
>> no

Have you tried reinstalling Acrobat Reader?
>> makes no difference 

How about using a new Mozilla user profile? 
>> makes no difference

Do other OS X browsers successfully hand PDF files off to your running copy of
Acrobat Reader?
>> yes

Comment 6

[Greg K.]

Hm. Well, it might be worth testing using a new OS X user profile, just to see
if it can be made to work using the same insalled application on the same machine.

Comment 7

[Will Jenkins]

WorksForMe on 20020709-08 Mac OS X 10.5

Comment 8

[Greg K.]

WorksForMe using FizzillaMach/2003021203. Mozilla displays the file handling
dialog, asking whether to open the PDF with an application or save it to disk.
The Mozilla application retains focus.

Loren, can you still reproduce this problem using a current nightly build? Were
you ever able to test using another OS X user account or even another machine?

(URL is no longer valid; please provide another.)

Comment 9

[Loren Rosen]

Works as you describe using 1.3b (Gecko/20030210). Also tried a brand-new
account. So I think this is fixed.

Jut for the record, back when it wasn't working I think I did try a new account
and this didn't help. Also, if you want another simillar URL try thing one:
http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/documents/disk0/00/00/03/65/index.html

Comment 10

[Greg K.]

Resolving WFM per comment 9.