InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by Paul_J_Miller on 2018/06/20 18:42

If one tries to copy a PDF file into InfoQube then it comes out as a mess of characters. It would be nice if the PDF file could display itself in the HTML pane. It is no big deal if this is not possible but it would be nice.

(edited to reduce the image size)

Comments

Hi Paul,

PDF files can be displayed in the HTML pane. See InfoQube Program Install and Set-up on how to set it up

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To display PDFs in the HTML pane, Adobe Acrobat Reader must be installed. Version X 10.1.16 works fine. Steps are:

Open Acrobat Reader
Edit > Preferences > Internet: Check Display PDF in browser
Edit > Preferences > Reading: In Screen Reader Options > Page vs Document, select Only read the currently visible page (Ref link)

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Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

I have just spent all evening trying to install the bloated spyware that is Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and trying to get it to display a .PDF file in Firefox.

In Adobe Acrobat the "Edit > Preferences > Internet" page does not have a checkbox for 'Display PDF in browser'

Instead it has this :-

Mozilla in their finite wisdom have disabled most extensions and add-ons, including the official Adobe extension for reading PDF files.

And after all that the PDF file in InfoQube still opens as the same mess of characters it did before.

It would be nice to be able to view PDF files in InfoQube but getting the PDF reader, Browser and InfoQube to play nicely with each other is problematic.

IQ uses IE engine for the HTML pane.

So it's IE you need to get working with Adobe Reader -- if you follow the link as shown in your screenshot there are instructions for IE.

That *should* help.

Version 10.1.6 can be found here:

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/10.x/10.1.16/misc/

On another PC, I have version 18.011.20040 and it correctly displays in the HTML pane

Did you follow the steps described here (section Internet Explorer):

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/display-pdf-in-browser.html

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Sorry about the large images, my laptop has a high DPI screen.

These images had already been reduced in size by 50%.

No problem, I sometimes clean up some posts, to make it easier for all users. In this case, I truncated the image and sent it to the server instead of the straight paste. It loads faster.

Did you get it working?

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

Did you get it working?

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[/quote]

Nope.

The extension for .PDF's doesn't appear in Internet Exploiter or in Edge.

I even set these browsers to be the default browser whilst installing Adobe Acrobat still the extensions didn't appear.

The Microsoft website which holds a gallery of extensions for IE appears to have nothing in it now, all previous links to extensions come up with a 404 error. Microsoft seem to think that everybody MUST switch to Microsoft Edge the browser with even more user surveilance than Google Chrome.

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

Version 10.1.6 can be found here:

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/10.x/10.1.16/misc/

On another PC, I have version 18.011.20040 and it correctly displays in the HTML pane

Did you follow the steps described here (section Internet Explorer):

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/display-pdf-in-browser.html

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

[/quote]

The first site reveals two files, the first file won't install because it says it is an update file and I don't have the version it is trying to update. The second file requires some sort of login (username and password) to download it.

The second website gives instructions for enabling their browser extension except that their browser extension doesn't appear in the list. And I can't find anywhere to download it independently, I think it was supposed to get installed alongside Adobe Acrobat but I have installed Adobe Acrobat many time now, with each browser set as the default and the extension doesn't appear. Perhaps there is some setting hidden deep in Windows 10 that messes up some install programs, I don't know what is going on.

This is not your problem Pierre, you should not be tasked with getting two pieces of other people's software to talk to each other.

I will go back to Firefox as my browser and PDF Xchange Viewer as my PDF program and not embed any PDF files in InfoQube.

<sigh/>

Paul, I am not sure how you are attempting to display the contents of a PDF file in the HTML pane .. you use the terms "copy" and "embed".

In the HTML pane, if I click Menu > File > Open > Open File, browse to a PDF file and click Open, the PDF file is displayed in the IQ HTML pane. (I had to install Adobe Reader DC first.)

Does the File > Open method not work for you?

OK so I was doing it wrong.

Sorry for creating a fuss.

I was dragging the .PDF file to the item grid, I had overlooked the file menu in the HTML pane.

It seems that if you drag an other type of file to the item grid it gets treated as a text file and displayed accordingly, no matter what it's file extension.

By the way the embedding of a .PDF file works with Adobe Acrobat but not with PDF XChange Reader or Foxit Reader.

I try not to support the large software conpanies hegemonies, your money/patronage is much better off with the small companies and independent software developers, that way there is more diversity in the market. Things get bad and/or expensive when one company gets too much power.

Anyway now I can display a PDF file in the HTML pane of an item, I have a question.

Is the file actually copied into the IQ notebase or is it displaying an external file?

I could do the experiment, display a file and then delete/rename the file then run IQ again and see if it is still there. But I thought someone might be able to give a quick answer to save me the trouble.

Hi Paul,

It should work when dragging a file to the grid, I'll test it.

As to your question (external file), see the last post in this thread (yes, it is an external file, not embedded). This post also explains why Adobe Acrobat must be used (the only PDF reader that includes an ActiveX/AddOn for IE) Version X is an old one, so you would not have the feeling of supporting large corporation (and it is a smaller download too)

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Just tested, this worked just fine:

n.b. You must of course select HTML pane to have it shown in it !

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

I just tried this again and it worked, the difference was not the HTML page radio button.

The only difference is the 'Link should point to' button.

I had left it as pointing to a shortcut to the file, if you chang it to point to the actual file then drag and drop to the item grid works.

It isn't embedded but, oh well, I can live with that. Besides it makes the notebase smaller.

The only disadvantage to the file not being embedded is that I can't transfer my notebase to my desktop computer by a simple copy. The links to external files fail.

[quote=Paul_J_Miller]

I had left it as pointing to a shortcut to the file
The only disadvantage to the file not being embedded is that I can't transfer my notebase to my desktop computer by a simple copy. The links to external files fail.

[/quote]

Got it, I'll see how to fix that
Using a sync service, such as Dropbox can help
Also, if it fits your workflow, you can put the PDF in the .Files folder. Copying is then real easy
Finally, Dropbox sync (as described here) works just fine for multi-computer setups

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

Made me think of an idea, a hard link to the external file could be put into the .Files folder, named according to the usual scheme (e.g "ItemID1813.htm"). And if the database and .Files folder is copied to another location, and the external file is not found at the original location, IQ could then find the hard-linked copy in the .Files folder. But you've got many more important things to think about.

[quote=jimspoon]

[/quote]

Good thinking Jim, especially since that's exactly how it works already (when you drag-drop a file to the grid) !

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

I had not thought of putting a copy in the .Files folder but this is just as good.

Most people use PDF documents for reference, i.e. stored information rather than a word processor document which could change as it is edited. It is easy to produce a PDF document from one of the many virtual printers which are available but this is usually done when the document is finished.

Therefore a copy of a PDF document is just as good as embedding the document.

This might not be the case for a word processor document which may need to be edited causing the original file and the copy in the notebase to become different.

I don't use a Dropbox or any remote server to transfer my data, but I do have a NAS (Network-attached storage) on my LAN. Imagine several drives which appear on both my laptop (when it is connected to the LAN) and on my desktop computer.

I should work out some clever scheme which would keep them in sync but at the moment I only work on one instance of IQ at a time and then copy the files manually.

Indexing the contents of the PDF's is a great idea but I don't know how you would do that or how you would index a PDF made from scanned images. Renaming the HTML pane as the Doc pane is also very good, it's purpose is expressed more clearly.

In v109:

Fixed: HTML: Linked files (through drag-drop to the grid) that use Windows shortcuts were not dereferenced, hence were not shown correctly

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer

I updated the documentation on how to properly install and setup Acrobat Reader to view PDF documents within the HTML pane:

InfoQube Program Install and Set-up

Also, as Jim pointed out, it isn't OLE embedding, but rather a local file displayed by an ActiveX control running inside Internet Explorer, itself hosted by the HTML pane.

Pierre_Admin

IQ Designer