308113 - pdf documents can not be opened from within firefox window but with adobe reader instead

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[K. Deniz Ogut]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20050911 Firefox/1.6a1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20050911 Firefox/1.6a1

I was using firefox 1.0.6 with Adobe Reader 6.0.2b. I migrated to Firefox 1.5
Beta 1 (Firefox 1.4)with a clean install, and found that PDF files are not
opened in browser window. Then I uninstall Adobe Reader and reinstalled it. This
time up to version 6.0.4. (Adobe Reader 7.0 is not available for Win 98 SE,
which is my OS)Then I decided to try a newer nightly and did so with this
version. Same result. To be sure, I uninstalled firefox's newest version and
installed 1.0.6. Clean install. This time, 1.0.6 didn't open PDF from within
browser but from Adobe Reader. (By the way, while doing all these, I knew that I
had Adobe Acrobat plug-ins in Firefox, from about:plugins, result was always and
still is as follows:
Adobe Acrobat

    File name: nppdf32.dll
    Adobe Acrobat Plug-In Version 6.00 for Netscape

MIME Type 	Description 	Suffixes 	Enabled
application/pdf 	Acrobat Portable Document Format 	pdf 	Yes
application/vnd.fdf 	Acrobat Forms Data Format 	fdf 	Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xfdf 	XML Version of Acrobat Forms Data Format 	xfdf 	Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xdp+xml 	Acrobat XML Data Package 	xdp 	Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xfd+xml 	Adobe FormFlow99 Data File 	xfd 	Yes

Yes, 1.0.6, this time didn't open from within browser window. I looked at Adobe
Reader 6.0.4's edit>preferences>internet area. There are 4 choices and all of
them were checked. They are: "Display PDF in browser", "Check browser settings
when starting reader", "Allow fast web view" and "Allow speculative downloading
in the background". I unchecked the second one "Check browser settings when
starting reader", and Firefox began to view the PDFs within browser window using
Adobe Reader. Deciding that I solved the problem, I uninstalled 1.0.6 and made a
clean install of 1.6a1 again. But I couldn't get the result what I expected.
With that setting too, I am not able to view PDFs from within browser window.
Whenever I click on PDF link in a browser window, 1.6a1 asks if to view it with
Adobe Reader or to download it. If you say "view it", it directs you to Adobe
Reader and it's viewed there. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install Firefox 1.4 or 1.6a1 under Win 98 SE.
2.Install Adobe Acrobat plug-in, if necessary.
3.Check the box "risplay PDF in browser" from Adobe Reader's preferences, if it
is not so.
4. From a web page click a PDF link.

Actual Results:  
Firefox asks if to view it with Adobe Reader or to download. 

Expected Results:  
To view it in its own window by using Adobe Reader.

Tnere's a discussion on MozillaZine forum about the subject:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=315634

People using XP etc. say that they don't have such a problem. Can it be
something related with Win 98 SE? because you can not update to Adobe Reader 7.0
in Win 98 SE. But why can we view PDFs in 1.0.6 with the same Adobe Reader
version (even if unchecking the "check browser settings...") but not in Deer
Park versions? What can the "browser setting" which Adobe Reader doesn't like in
1.0.6 be? And why situation for Deer Park versions is even worse?

Comment 1

[Gabriel Sjoberg]

Try going to Tools > Options > Downloads > View & Edit Actions

Find the entry for PDF in the list of extensions.  Click on it and then click
"Change Action...".  If it's not already selected, click on the button that says
"Use this Plugin".  Click "Ok" then click "Close".  Does this fix your problem?

Comment 2

[K. Deniz Ogut]

(In reply to comment #1)

No it doesn't. This time it downloads and views in Adobe Reader without asking
"do you want to view it or save it to the disc". I don't think that it's so
important because the problem is still the same but I have to say that now my FF
version is changed to the last branch which is:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.8b4) Gecko/20050913 Firefox/1.4

OS is still Win 98 SE.

Comment 3

[Neil Parks]

I have the same problem under Win ME after upgrading from 1.0.7 to first 1.5 RC 1 and then 1.5 RC 2.

With 1.0.7 and earlier, PDF files would open in a browser window or tab with Adobe Acrobat controls.  With both RC's I get the option to open with the PDF default app or save it.  I checked the download action as recommended in the forum post linked above.  It is correctly set to use the plugin.  "About:plugins" shows that the plugin is installed.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051107 Firefox/1.5

Comment 4

[Neil Parks]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Does this fix your problem?

No.

Comment 5

[Simon Schmischke]

I can confirm this Problem.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; de; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

That should be solved.

Comment 6

[Philipp Scharl]

I can confirm this bug for Windows ME:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; de; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

SeaMonkey 1.0a seems to have this problem, too: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=309935
But it was fixed a few days ago with a very simple patch.

I guess the bug can be solved in the same way for Firefox.

Comment 7

[richard.horne]

I think I can confirm this for a combination of XP/Adobe Acrobat Pro 7. There seems to be a general connectivity failure between Mozilla Firefox and professional versions - at least the most recent - of Adobe Acrobat. I have Acrobat Pro 7 installed on my machine and cannot view any .pdf files in the Firefox browser. Adobe opens separately and basically says it cannot open the file. Previously, I had the "free" version of Acrobat Reader 6 installed, and viewing .pdf files within the browser was possible. In speaking with the creator of a .pdf-related Mozilla extension (www.rabotat.org), we eliminated the possibility that his extension was causing or contributing to the problem. There is an off chance that a different extension may be inadvertently causing the .pdf browser plugin to fail with Firefox, but this seems very unlikely. I hope I have not missed a "cure" in this string for this type of problem - if so, would someone kindly direct me to it? Thanks.

Comment 8

[sumer]

I can confirm I have the same problem (bug) for Windows XP SP2 and Acrobat Reader 7.07:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4
File name: nppdf32.dll
Adobe Acrobat Plug-In Version 7.00 for Netscape
MIME Type 	          Description 	                   Suffixes Enabled
application/pdf 	Acrobat Portable Document Format 	pdf 	Yes
application/vnd.fdf 	Acrobat Forms Data Format 	fdf 	Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xfdf 	XML Version of Acrobat Forms Data Format 	xfdf 	Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xdp+xml 	Acrobat XML Data Package 	xdp 	Yes
application/vnd.adobe.xfd+xml 	Adobe FormFlow99 Data File 	xfd 	Yes

I have reinstalled Adobe R.7.07, checked in Preferences->Internet, the Display PDF in Browser, make a new Firefox profil.I went to "Tools->Options->Downloads ->Edit&ViewAction" and choose the line starting with "PDF":Checked use with plugin. Still do not work (open PDF in Adobe,not in FF) .With Internet Explorer (v6.02900 SP2), Pdf open in IE.

Comment 9

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

WFM in Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2pre) Gecko/20070115 BonEcho/2.0.0.2pre and Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9a2pre) Gecko/2007011504 Minefield/3.0a2pre and with Acrobat Reader 7.0.x and 8.

The last comment on this bug is more than 6 month old, so resolving this as wfm. If you can reproduce your reported problem here with a latest build/release, feel free to reopen.

And if you have this problem, please post a link, so others can reproduce this problem.