Browser Plugins  SOLVED

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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Browser Plugins

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

My default browser is Vivaldi, which is based on the Chromium rendering engine.

This uses it's internal PDF viewer.

I tried Firefox and Opera 12.18, but could not figure out how to get PDF-XChange to display PDF files in a Tab.

Which browsers support the PDF plugin?
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: Browser Plugins

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Bhikkhu,

Over the last year or so - most browsers moved away from NPAPI support - so it is now no longer possible to develop complex plug-ins as ours. This affects not only us but pretty much any PDF viewer that used to be able to open in a browser.
So from the 'modern' browsers only IE11 is still supported:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowle ... b-browsers

I also have Opera 12 (and 15 - with the Chrome engine), and opera 12 still works for me with the NPAPI plug in just as in the past.

Regards,
Stefan
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Browser Plugins

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Thanks again. On a second attempt I did get the PDF plugin to work in Opera 12.18.

In view of most users not needing the PDF plugin nowadays, I probably won't bother to review the feature.
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Re: Browser Plugins

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Bhikkhu,

It is not that the plug-in is not needed, it is that Browser devs made them unusable! But indeed I can understand your point, and a new review of this functionality can indeed be skipped.

Regards,
Stefan
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Browser Plugins

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Could you build a Chrome Extension instead? There does not seem to be any mileage in devoting any resources to NPAPI plugins?

This PDF Viewer extension helps a lot with navigation of PDF files, but it would be nice to view and edit comments too.
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Browser Plugins

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hello Bhikkhu,

Unfortunately the API provided by Google simply does not allow for such complex functionality. From what I understand, it's not at all possible to do, but even if it were, the Google API simply isn't structured to handle such a complex architecture and would cause so many issues that it simply would not be worth the time and cost of development.

Sorry, I know that's not what yourself and others wanted to hear [read?].
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Browser Plugins

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Thanks for your reply. I just noticed that the extension does display comments rather better formatted than the default plugin.

I guess I will just have to open PDF files in PDF-XChange if I want to do more.
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Re: Browser Plugins  SOLVED

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Bhikkhu,

Taken from the description in the link you provided:
"Overview
Uses HTML5 to display PDF files directly in the browser."


Unfortunately this has limitations of it's own, and while e.g. rendering the file is possible so that it can be displayed, anything else is either impossible or too complex to be realized, so any attempt we make to create such an extension will be 'crippled' and we've decided against making a partial solution!

Regards,
Stefan
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