Inline PDF solution available for Camino 2.0a1pre builds

[Uncle Asad]

Edit 2009-10-06:

DO NOT USE THIS PLUG-IN; use the new version of the Schubert PDF Browser Plugin instead.

We have discovered over the course of this thread that the Firefox PDF plugin is buggy, causes crashes, and requires a very complex and unfriendly installation method.

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As seen on Mac OS X Hints, there's a new PDF plug-in available for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. It mostly works in Camino trunk (2.0a1pre) builds, too.

It's packaged as a Firefox extension with a XUL wrapper around the actual NPAPI plug-in; however, the actual NPAPI plug-in (pdfplugin.plugin) does work in Camino trunk (2.0a1pre) builds, too. Just download the .xpi file ("Install Now" link), rename the .xpi file to .zip, unzip it, and put the pdfplugin.plugin from the "plugins" folder in (~)/Library/Internet Plug-ins on your Mac and relauch Camino.

Some keyboard shortcuts (arrow keys/pgUp/Dn/home/end for navigation) don't work, but scrolling with the scrollbar/trackpad works, as do zoom in/out (cmd-=/-). Selection of text and copy work, also. It's certainly usable, though.

Note the plug-in is not compatible with Camino 1.6.x (presumably it uses the new plug-in models introduced in Gecko 1.9), and it breaks the existing "auto-download" of pdfs in Camino 1.6.x on Intel Macs.

[Uncle Asad]

Some other notes:

• The plug-in doesn't seem to support standard PDF page/fragment identifiers
• It can occasionally eat the next/previous tab shortcuts
• If you switch back and forth between 1.6.x and 2.0a1pre builds and don't want to kill 1.6.x's ability to download PDFs, you can store the plug-in in the 2.0a1pre Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/plugins folder

[davedit]

Very cool, thanks for the tip!

[jcraig]

So long Manfred...

[Uncle Asad]

Also, note that the author of this plug-in is releasing new versions very quickly, so be sure to check back there for updates. The latest version fixes some keyboard nav bugs (but between the plug-in and focus bugs in Gecko 1.9, it’s hard to tell what’s a bug in the plug-in and what’s just horribly broken in Gecko For instance, while the arrow keys now work, in order to get them to work you have to explicitly click in the plug-in content, but that has the unfortunate result of eating the tab-switching shortcuts 100% of the time, and then triggering known Gecko/Cocoa widgets plug-in bugs).

[ozean]

In the last few days there have been a few new builds (after a three month period without any activity). However, when I tried the newest version (0.9.9.5), Camino crashed when opening a PDF.

[Uncle Asad]

In the last few days there have been a few new builds (after a three month period without any activity). However, when I tried the newest version (0.9.9.5), Camino crashed when opening a PDF.

Fortunately, there seems to be an easy fix, if a rather ugly one

The author has changed how he does certain things in the newer versions and, rather than using the plug-in API, is using XPCOM, which means he's added a bunch of files.

The only way to use the plug-in now is to perform surgery on Camino itself.

1) Download the latest version from http://code.google.com/p/firefox-mac-pdf/ ("Install PDF Plugin" link)
2) Rename the .xpi file .zip (so Mac OS X will know how to expand it) and double-click to extract the files
3) Copy the "pdfplugin.plugin" file into Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/plugins
4) Copy the contents of the "components" folder into Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/components

N.B. You will need to repeat this procedure any time you install or upgrade Camino.

See the previous posts for some of the known problems with the plug-in in Camino.

Edited to supply a better step-by-step set of instructions

[marxistvegan]

In the last few days there have been a few new builds (after a three month period without any activity). However, when I tried the newest version (0.9.9.5), Camino crashed when opening a PDF.

Fortunately, there seems to be an easy fix, if a rather ugly one

The author has changed how he does certain things in the newer versions and, rather than using the plug-in API, is using XPCOM, which means he's added a bunch of files.

The only way to use the plug-in now is to perform surgery on Camino itself. As before, the pdfplugin.plugin file goes inside Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/plugins, but now the contents of the "components" folder inside the xpi need to live in Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/components.

So it better not to upgrade? or is the upgrade worth it?

[lilmoch]

I just tried installing this following Uncle Asad's instructions for 0.9.9.5. I put the pdfplugin.plugin file in Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/plugins, and the contents of the components folder inside the xpi in Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/components.

Nevertheless, each time I click on a PDF link Camino crashes. Do any of you have this working? Or does anyone have an old version that they could perhaps send to me?

[stardomains]

I just tried installing this following Uncle Asad's instructions for 0.9.9.5. I put the pdfplugin.plugin file in Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/plugins, and the contents of the components folder inside the xpi in Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/components.

Nevertheless, each time I click on a PDF link Camino crashes. Do any of you have this working? Or does anyone have an old version that they could perhaps send to me?

I could not get it to work either.

You can use the bookmarklet below and use PDFMENOT online flash to open in browser. The bookmarklet creates a link next to any pdf link on a webpage. Click it and it will open in PDFMENOT.

Code: Select all

javascript:(function()%7Bvar%20links=document.getElementsByTagName('a'),%20pdf_regex%20=%20new%20RegExp('pdf$','i');for%20(var%20i=0;%20i%3Clinks.length;%20i++)%20if%20(pdf_regex.test(links%5Bi%5D.getAttribute('href')))%20%7B%20links%5Bi%5D.href='http://pdfmenot.com/view/'+links%5Bi%5D.href;links%5Bi%5D.style.background%20=%20'url(http://static.retailmenot.com/pdf.gif)%20no-repeat';links%5Bi%5D.style.padding%20=%20'0%200%200%2020px';%7D%20%7D)()

ex. http://www.letterfu.com/letters/plain-lilac-letter.pdf

Put bookmarkelet in bookmark bar and click it. A PDF link appears in Camino next to example link.

[lilmoch]

Very cool! Thanks for the tip.

[Uncle Asad]

It works for me; I don't have any idea why it's not working for you

In my experimenting (and ozean's report above), the crashes came about because the stuff that belongs in Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/components/ was missing. Perhaps double-check that you have PDFplugin.xpt, PDFService.js, and PDFService.xpt in Camino.app/Contents/MacOS/components/ ?

In the end, because of all the focus/plug-in bugs in Gecko 1.9 and the new hackery required to install it, it's not a very elegant solution even when it is working, which is unfortunate. If you're on PPC, I think you're probably far better off with the ancient Schubert plug-in; on Intel, simply downloading the PDF, clicking Open, and then clicking Trash when you're done if you don't want the PDF is still a more effective workflow.

[stardomains]

You can also go back to fx-quartz-pdf-0.9.9.xpi

http://code.google.com/p/firefox-mac-pd ... nloadCount

[hardcoreUFO]

This instantly crashes the nightly (Version 2.0b1pre (1.9.0.4pre 2008103000)) upon loading a pdf file on my machine.

[lilmoch]

I was able to get it to work using the version that "stardomains" linked to. The new version crashes Camino without fail.