Application Content/Action Pair for PDF

[Bill Braun]

FF 19.0

Regardless of my setting under applications Content Type/Action all pdf
documents open in Firefox. Here are the steps I took. (I've searched
prior threads without seeing this phenomenon; might be there, can't find
it.)

1. Options > Applications
2. For Content Type = Adobe Acrobat Document, Action = Always Ask, OK
3. Close FF
4. Open FF
5. http://www.systemdynamics.org/dynamica/articles/91/1.pdf

Result: pdf doc opens in FF.

Same sequence, for #2, Action = Save document..., OK

Result: same

Same sequence, for #2, Action = Use Adobe Reader, OK

Result: same

I even set Action = notepad.exe just for yuks, and it still opened in FF.

The Action option of Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox) is not available for
Content Type Adobe Acrobat Document, but is available for Adobe Acrobat
Forms Document (application/vnd.adobe.xfdf), Adobe Acrobat Forms
Document (application/vnd.adobe.fdf), and Adobe Acrobat XML Data Package
File.

I did see that someone in another thread noted that when the document
opens in FF there is a way to change the desired behavior from within
the plug-in itself, but I do not see that.

Apologies if this ground has been covered. A reference to the thread
that does address it is just fine, no need to rehash.

Thank you.

[Peter Holsberg]

Bill Braun has written on 2/28/2013 4:17 PM:

about:config
PDF

pdfjs.disabled true
pdfjs.FirstRun false
pdfjs.previousHandler.alwaysAskBeforeHandling false

Under Options > Application, I have set my external PDF program.

HTH
pdfjs.previousHandler.preferredAction 4

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Bill Braun" <bbr...@basicbusinesssim.invalid>

Tools --> options --> applications

Scroll down to...

Portable Document Format (PDF)

Change your preference. Mine is "save file".

--
Dave
Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk
http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

[VanguardLH]

Just for more yuks, after changing the app association for PDF to Adobe
Reader, save, or whatever (other than the internal PDF viewer from
Mozilla), and after exiting Firefox, waiting for the firefox.exe process
to disappear, and reloading Firefox, is the setting still the same as
what you configured? That is, does the setting stick?

[Bill Braun]

The issue was never stickiness. David has addressed the problem, thank
you David.

Out of curiosity, how did the other Adobe related applications come to
be listed in Applications? What do they actually refer to, especially
Adobe Acrobat Document, which seems to be a pretty specific reference to
a pdf document.

[WaltS]

Probably from a very old profile, still in use, that needs to be reset.

--
Fedora 18.0 (64-bit) KDE 4.9.5
Thunderbird Daily
If we burn in hell, do we freeze in heaven?

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Bill Braun" <bbr...@basicbusinesssim.invalid>

> The issue was never stickiness. David has addressed the problem, thank you
> David.
>
> Out of curiosity, how did the other Adobe related applications come to be
> listed in Applications? What do they actually refer to, especially Adobe
> Acrobat Document, which seems to be a pretty specific reference to a pdf
> document.
>

Thanx for the update.

I think the difference is one is a MIME type and the other is based upon
file extension.

[Bill Braun]

On 3/1/2013 9:57 AM, David H. Lipman wrote:
> From: "Bill Braun" <bbr...@basicbusinesssim.invalid>
>
>
>> The issue was never stickiness. David has addressed the problem, thank
>> you David.
>>
>> Out of curiosity, how did the other Adobe related applications come to
>> be listed in Applications? What do they actually refer to, especially
>> Adobe Acrobat Document, which seems to be a pretty specific reference
>> to a pdf document.
>>
>
> Thanx for the update.
>
> I think the difference is one is a MIME type and the other is based upon
> file extension.

Thanks again, David. WaltS suggested an old profile. Ancient is more
like it. I don't believe I have ever touched the original profile that
has been there since FF 3.

[Ron K.]

Bill Braun on 3/1/2013 10:05 AM, keyboarded a reply:

Acrobat is one of a few apps that Mozilla scans for on first startup and
regulated by hidden pref: plugin.scan.Acrobat which defaults to version 5.

--
Ron K.
Who is General Failure, and why is he searching my HDD?
Kernel Restore reported Major Error used BSOD to msg the enemy!

[VanguardLH]

Bill Braun wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Bill Braun wrote:
>>
>>> FF 19.0
>>>
>>> Regardless of my setting under applications Content Type/Action all pdf
>>> documents open in Firefox.

>>> I even set Action = notepad.exe just for yuks, and it still opened in FF.
>>>
>>> The Action option of Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox) is not available for
>>> Content Type Adobe Acrobat Document, but is available for Adobe Acrobat
>>> Forms Document (application/vnd.adobe.xfdf), Adobe Acrobat Forms
>>> Document (application/vnd.adobe.fdf), and Adobe Acrobat XML Data Package
>>> File.
>>>
>>> I did see that someone in another thread noted that when the document
>>> opens in FF there is a way to change the desired behavior from within
>>> the plug-in itself, but I do not see that.
>>>
>>> Apologies if this ground has been covered. A reference to the thread
>>> that does address it is just fine, no need to rehash.
>>>
>>> Thank you.
>>
>> Just for more yuks, after changing the app association for PDF to Adobe
>> Reader, save, or whatever (other than the internal PDF viewer from
>> Mozilla), and after exiting Firefox, waiting for the firefox.exe process
>> to disappear, and reloading Firefox, is the setting still the same as
>> what you configured? That is, does the setting stick?
>>
>
> The issue was never stickiness.

I figured when you said "Content Type = Adobe Acrobat Document" that you
really meant "Portable Document Format (PDF)". I've never seen an entry
for "Adobe Acrobat Document"; however, I've never installed Adobe Reader
on my host (well, not for many of the last rebuilds). I've used better
PDF viewers before (but Adobe is catching up). That's why I wondered
when you made a selection for action (and assuming you meant for the PDF
app association) that it didn't get used might be because the setting
wasn't sticking.

Until you actually stipulate that the option did indeed stick, "the
issue was never stickiness" would obviously not be known until stated.

> David has addressed the problem, thank you David.

David posted less than 2 minutes before me. My polling interval is 5
minutes, not 1 minute. It also takes time to compose a post during
which I'm focused on writing up the post.

> Out of curiosity, how did the other Adobe related applications come to
> be listed in Applications? What do they actually refer to, especially
> Adobe Acrobat Document, which seems to be a pretty specific reference to
> a pdf document.

In a virtual machine, I have PDFXchange Viewer but never Adobe Reader.
I used Nirsoft's MIME viewer to look at what MIME types were currently
defined in that VM. I did a search on "adobe" but nothing matched.

I went to www.adobe.com to their Adobe Reader download page, deselected
their foistware (Google Chrome) and installed AR XI (11.0.02). I loaded
AR once (to ensure it entered any registry entries it wants). It
crashed (this is Windows XP, all updates, with the only app installed
being PDFxchange Viewer). I made sure AR was selected as the default
PDF viewer instead of PDFxchange (Windows Explorer -> Tools -> Folder
Options -> Filetype, "PDF" extension, changed to Adobe Reader). I
looked again with Nirsoft's MIME viewer and searched on "adobe". I
found the following MIME types associated with Adobe:

Previous existing definition:
application/pdf (this was set for PDFxchange, now for Adobe)

New definitions:
application/vnd.adobe.acrobat-security-settings
application/vnd.adobe.pdfxml
application/vnd.adobe.pdx
application/vnd.adobe.xdp+xml
application/vnd.adobe.xfd+xml
application/vnd.adobe.xfdf
application/vnd.fdf

So the installation of Adobe Reader adds several more app associations,
all with a plug-in name of "Adobe PDF Reader". Notice some of the MIME
types found by MIME viewer and listed for Adobe are those you mentioned
(xfdf and fdf).


Nirsoft MIME viewer
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mimeview.html