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pdfs and Firefox

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pdfs and Firefox 18/07/2010 at 23:05 #1467
postal
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Users of Firefox who access the Wiki may well suffer a freeze of their browser when they make an attempt to follow up a link to a pdf. The page remains blank and the status bar at the bottom of the page shows stopped. If you have enough patience you eventually get a pop-up telling you that the pdf file is corrupted. I have seen this problem in both FF 3.6.6 and 4.0 Beta1. Other browsers open the link with no problems.

From what I have gathered in wandering round the internet, there is a known conflict between the Docuwiki software and Firefox which can cause Firefox to freeze when trying to access a pdf file from a link in a Docuwiki set-up. The conflict occurs when you try and view a pdf file through FF but you can quite happily save the file and then view it with your normal pdf viewer.

There are a couple of routes you can try to avoid the problem. You can either save the file and view it outside the browser or use an add-on like IE Tab Plus to view the link using another browser engine. Alternative pdf add-ons like NitroPDF do not solve the problem and cause your browser to go into a loop of opening blank tab after blank tab while it tries to access the page; you have to open in safe mode and uninstall the add-on to restore sanity.

Hope that helps any FF user who was wondering about links not working properly on the Wiki.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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pdfs and Firefox 18/07/2010 at 23:05 #10109
postal
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5190 posts
Users of Firefox who access the Wiki may well suffer a freeze of their browser when they make an attempt to follow up a link to a pdf. The page remains blank and the status bar at the bottom of the page shows stopped. If you have enough patience you eventually get a pop-up telling you that the pdf file is corrupted. I have seen this problem in both FF 3.6.6 and 4.0 Beta1. Other browsers open the link with no problems.

From what I have gathered in wandering round the internet, there is a known conflict between the Docuwiki software and Firefox which can cause Firefox to freeze when trying to access a pdf file from a link in a Docuwiki set-up. The conflict occurs when you try and view a pdf file through FF but you can quite happily save the file and then view it with your normal pdf viewer.

There are a couple of routes you can try to avoid the problem. You can either save the file and view it outside the browser or use an add-on like IE Tab Plus to view the link using another browser engine. Alternative pdf add-ons like NitroPDF do not solve the problem and cause your browser to go into a loop of opening blank tab after blank tab while it tries to access the page; you have to open in safe mode and uninstall the add-on to restore sanity.

Hope that helps any FF user who was wondering about links not working properly on the Wiki.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 01:27 #10110
UKTrainMan
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1803 posts
Have you tried to open the PDFs via 'Open in New Tab' or 'Open in New Window' (or however those two commands are written)? I've had that same error message in Google Chrome before however it is normally resolved for me by trying to open the PDF in a New Tab or a New Window.
Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for.
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 08:11 #10111
postal
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UKTM

I have tried that and the effect is exactly the same.

JG

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 08:20 #10112
Danny252
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1461 posts
Adobe Acrobat does more or less the same anywhere I go - taking forever to open a file and locking up the whole browser as it does so - no matter what system or version of Acrobat I'm using. The problem appears to stem from the fact it fails horribly at downloading files itself - it'll take 10 minutes to download a 2mb file, which I can download in <10 seconds using FF itself. I'm rather sure it behaved exactly the same when I used IE.

I usually save the PDF to hard drive (right click the link > save file), and open it from there - much quicker, plus I can access the file whenever. So please people, label your .pdfs do I know not to click the link!

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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 08:46 #10113
GeoffM
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6281 posts
I've upgraded DokuWiki to the latest stable version and the problem appears to have gone away.
SimSig Boss
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 08:50 #10114
postal
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5190 posts
Edit:

Posting deleted as Geoff's message cleared the problem while I was typing. I can confirm that on my system the Acrobat plug-in in FF is opening pdf files within seconds (on a 1Mb connection and with the cache cleared) so there is not much wrong there.

Thanks, Geoff.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 12:14 #10115
Sacro
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1171 posts
Might be worth ditching the PDFs and using SVG instead? Would be a lot nicer and (for all but IE) work straight in the browser.
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 13:02 #10116
GeoffM
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6281 posts
Are SVGs appropriate, as these PDFs tend to be screenshots with hand-edited labels? GIFs are usually quite good at compressing simple 16-colour bitmaps.

As to the fix itself, I found a bugtracker issue (on DokuWiki) that I hadn't seen before, which noted the problem, said it had been fixed, but no release date. Plus I don't particularly like upgrades where they say "just put the files over the top of existing files and it'll work (but do a backup first)".

SimSig Boss
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 15:28 #10117
Sacro
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Ah, for SimSig screenshots you want to use PNG, for maps and such (line drawings), SVG is a better choice.
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 16:13 #10118
postal
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5190 posts
Ben

When I am creating a signalling diagram, I usually use Open Office Draw because that is the package where I feel most comfortable creating the plans. The Save As options in that package are Open Office or Star Office formats, no standard graphics or picture options. As these options are relatively inaccessible, I use the Open Office option of exporting to pdf to make the diagrams as accessible as possible. I know that is not the most efficient way of using the server space the SimSig has, but it is an accessible format which I can reach with 1 click when I am creating the plan.

If server space does become an issue, I still have the base files in .odg format if anyone wants to convert them to .png.

JG

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 19:06 #10119
Sacro
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Postal - just opened up OpenOffice Draw 3.2.1, above 'Export to PDF' I have an 'Export' option, that has a drop down list of file types including both PNG and SVG, these would be more suitable, faster and more secure. If you wish I would be happy to convert them for you.

Ben

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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 20:29 #10124
postal
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Ben

Presumably all in the manual! Still, it's always a good day when you learn something new so thanks for the tip. Now to have a good rest while my 1Mb connection downloads 3.2.1 so that I can update.

JG

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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pdfs and Firefox 19/07/2010 at 21:15 #10125
GeoffM
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6281 posts
Space isn't a problem... and at the moment, neither is bandwidth since it's stuck at zero - but don't tell the webhosts!
SimSig Boss
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