PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

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peterpqa
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PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by peterpqa »

I'm starting a new thread because the "Camino and .pdf problem" thread didn't appear to address this particular aspect of the PDF issue. Camino is by far my favorite browser, but some websites don't work on Camino (my bank's online banking website, among others). So sometimes I'm forced to use Safari.

The Schubert PDF plugin 2.3.2 works with Camino 2.1.2, but it makes Safari 5.1.7 just show an all-black window when trying to view PDFs. Schubert 2.4.4 doesn't work with Camino 2.1.2 (Camino shows a blank, all-white window), but it works fine with Safari 5.1.7 (it actually overrides Safari's WebKit built-in PDF plugin). With no PDF plugins at all (or with AdobePDFViewer.plugin 10.1.0), Safari reads PDFs with WebKit, and Camino just downloads them. I don't even have the AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin.

In the ".pdf downloads" thread, Uncle Assad spoke of "Camino 2.1.3, where we block the broken Adobe plug-in from loading." That won't solve my problem. I don't even need or use the Adobe plugin. I need to be able to read PDFs in Camino AND Safari. If Camino could use Schubert 2.4.4, that would solve my problem. Any hope for that?

Of, if making Camino use Schubert 2.4.4 isn't possible in the near future, how about this: Have Camino create a "Camino-Only Plugins" folder in ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins, and have Camino load plugins from both the regular plugins folder and the Camino plugins folder. That way, Camino could load Schubert 2.3.2, but it wouldn't break Safari.

Or... Does Safari have a "hidden preferences" feature like Camino, where I could tell Safari not to load Schubert 2.3.2?
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Uncle Asad
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by Uncle Asad »

peterpqa wrote:Have Camino create a "Camino-Only Plugins" folder in ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins, and have Camino load plugins from both the regular plugins folder and the Camino plugins folder. That way, Camino could load Schubert 2.3.2, but it wouldn't break Safari.

We've had this since early on in 2.1 development; Camino 2.1.x will load plug-ins from ~/Library/Application Support/Camino/Internet Plug-Ins (aka the "Internet Plug-Ins" folder inside your Camino profile). ;)
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peterpqa
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by peterpqa »

Wow, do I feel stupid. That works perfectly! With Schubert 2.3.2 in my USER's Library/Application Support/Camino/Internet Plug-Ins folder, not the SYSTEM's Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder, I can read PDFs in both Camino and Safari. Thanks for enlightening this monkey with a typewriter. (But it is kind of a "secret decoder ring" solution...) -P-
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cflawson
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by cflawson »

Huh, I wonder what Safari changed that made 2.3.2 no longer work? It used to, I'm pretty sure.

cl
peterpqa
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by peterpqa »

As I recall, Schubert 2.3.2 never actually "worked" with Safari - Safari just ignored it and used the Adobe PDF plugin. Now Schubert 2.3.2 shows black screens for PDFs on Safari 5.1.7, but Schubert 2.4.4 works like a charm - actually overriding Safari's WebKit built-in PDF plugin. Go figure. Just glad Uncle Asad showed me the secret door. -P-
phiw13
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by phiw13 »

cflawson wrote:Huh, I wonder what Safari changed that made 2.3.2 no longer work? It used to, I'm pretty sure.

Safari 5.0.x possibly did support it, but with all the changes in architecture (rendering layers, the new NPAPI) in Safari 5.1 / WebKit2, I'd be very surprised if it actually worked.
On 10.7 the 2.3.2 plugin didn't load at all (I forgot what error messages it logged, though).

@peterpqa
You can do the same thing for Flash - install Flash 10.3 in your Camino folder and Flash 11.x in the central internet plugins folder for the benefit of Safari.
peterpqa
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by peterpqa »

phiw13 wrote:You can do the same thing for Flash - install Flash 10.3 in your Camino folder and Flash 11.x in the central internet plugins folder for the benefit of Safari.

Curious - My Camino 2.1.2 Help>Installed Plug-Ins page shows I'm running Flash 11.2 r202 (version 11.2.202.235), and I'm not aware of any problems. Why should I have Flash 10.3 in my Camino plugins folder? And even if I did, wouldn't the newer Flash 11.x in the central plugins folder override the older Flash 10.3 in the Camino plugins folder? -P-
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cflawson
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by cflawson »

peterpqa wrote:
phiw13 wrote:You can do the same thing for Flash - install Flash 10.3 in your Camino folder and Flash 11.x in the central internet plugins folder for the benefit of Safari.

Curious - My Camino 2.1.2 Help>Installed Plug-Ins page shows I'm running Flash 11.2 r202 (version 11.2.202.235), and I'm not aware of any problems. Why should I have Flash 10.3 in my Camino plugins folder? And even if I did, wouldn't the newer Flash 11.x in the central plugins folder override the older Flash 10.3 in the Camino plugins folder? -P-


Because Flash 11 basically doesn't work in any browser using Gecko 1.9.x.

Camino will prefer what's in its own plugins folder over other copies/versions.

cl
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RPMozley
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by RPMozley »

The reason to use Flash 10.3 is because of the issues with the latest version of flash and clicks inside the flash interface, things like clicking play and moving pointer away doesn't hide the interface controls and other numerous clicking things (flash settings are impossible to fill in or dismiss is a major one).
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peterpqa
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by peterpqa »

Gee, I guess I only visit dull websites. When I do watch video on the computer (rarely), it seems to play OK, and I like having the controls show so I never noticed that problem. But I'll put Flash 10.3 in my Camino plugins folder. Thanks for the info.

BTW, will Flash 11.x and/or Schubert 2.4.4 work on Camino anytime soon?
peterpqa
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by peterpqa »

The latest Flash 10.3 in Adobe's archive is 10.3.183.18. Can I use that?
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cflawson
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Re: PDFs in Camino or Safari, but not both

Post by cflawson »

Yeah, all 10.3.x versions should work fine.

I wouldn't hold out any hope for Schubert's PDF plugin ever being updated to work in Camino, because the plugin now uses a drawing model Gecko 1.9.x will never support.

cl
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