[WEB4LIB] bug with IE5 upgrades and PDF files

[Pecaut, Mark J.]

Adobe Acrobat is not part of IE5.  If a web site sends a file, ANY file, to
your browser (IE5 in your case), your browser has to know how to deal with
it.  If it is a PDF, IE5 needs to have an action associated with that file
extension.  A plugin is necessary if you want the pdf displayed in the
browser window.  This plug-in, nppdf32.dll, needs to be placed in the proper
plugin folder so IE5 can deal with it properly.  This is not a server-side
issue, it is a client-side issue.  

incidentally, adobe has articles about this:
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/78c6.htm
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/98fe.htm

I am having trouble understanding what you mean when you say you are not
having this problem with all databases.  Do you mean at one website Acrobat
launches properly and at another it does not?  On the same machine?  If it
doesn't launch, what does happen?  What are the specific error messages?

I don't think there is anything ProQuest or Gale Group can do to fix this.
I don't think you need to worry too much about your students and faculty
members, short of telling them to install Adobe Acrobat and refer them to
the help pages at Adobe's site (see links above), unless you plan on doing
computer support for all of them.  If they don't have their browser
configured properly, they won't be able to view web pages.  If they don't
have their operating system configured properly, they won't be able to get
on the internet.  And if they don't have their browser plugins and Acrobat
configured properly, they won't see PDF files.  I don't think it is your
problem.  

-Mark

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wes Edens [mailto:EDENSW at t-bird.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 4:02 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] bug with IE5 upgrades and PDF files
> 
> 
> I apologize if this has been brought up before...I scanned 
> through the archives for the past several months and didn't see it.
> 
> We're having trouble with some databases that use PDF files.  
> Not all databases--for example, no problem with Political 
> Risk Yearbook Online.  No problem with Investext Research 
> Bank Web, but when we switched to the Searchbank platform for 
> Investext,  trouble.  This also happens with ProQuest Direct. 
>   Adobe never launches, and sometimes we get a message that 
> refers us to look at the Microsoft Active X gallery.
> >From a copied email (sorry, I don't have the list or website 
> this comes from) a user in the UK found a local fix, which 
> I'll lay out below.  **However, my question is this:  does 
> anyone know what's happening at the vendor side and is there 
> anything we should tell them to do?**
> 
> Here's the fix that works for us, from Julian Thornhill:
> 
> "..[in a] 'typical' IE5 upgrade, all of the IE5 stuff seems 
> to end up in the winnt directory...You don't get a 
> subdirectory 'plugins'.   However, as we shall see, this is 
> of use...I uninstalled IE5 and did a fresh install, stating a 
> specific installation directory.  This gave me a plugin 
> sub-dir, which was empty.  Now comes the magic: 
> Copy nppdf32.dll from your Acrobat installation directory and 
> put it in this new empty plugin dir.  After this Acrobat will 
> launch when you click on the previous broken link.
> Don't ask me to explain why any of this works."
> 
> I won't ask, but I'd really like to tell ProQuest and Gale 
> Group what to do on their end, since we have hundreds of 
> students and faculty members who won't be able to complete 
> this fix on their laptop, and we can't go to all of them 
> around the world.
> 
> Thanks very much.
> 
> 
> Wes Edens
> Electronic Resources Librarian
> Int'l Business Information Centre
> Am. Grad. School of Int'l Mgt. (Thunderbird)
> Glendale, AZ
> (602) 978 7897
> Fax:  (602) 978 7407
> edensw at t-bird.edu
> 
> 
>