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Hi, I'm not going to discuss compatibility issues, but will just add my comments to Max's post. 1. As you may remember I sent emails to pdfdev list (on PDFZone) and the pdfdev list (on PlanetPDF) about this issue in March/April 2003, alerting all developers that this was considered a security hole. Of the 27 responses to me, only 2 mentioned this *might* cause a problem. Based on that feedback, we implemented the change. 2. I agree with Max - the functions are still there - just moved around. The new Acrobat 6 User Interface was a direct result of customer feedback. 3. This change was implemented based on customer feedback. 4. As Max mentioned, glob.js was implemented originally to store USER PREFERENCES, not FORM DATA. However, many developers were using this to STORE FORM DATA (which of course violates the Reader EULA - as Max has said many many times the product is "READER" not "SAVER") we have tried to assist our customers such that THEY (the customers) are not in violation. I am always happy to champion the developer community back to our Product Management team and work closely with the teams to ensure the developer community is heard. If anyone wants to contact me directly - please do. Lori -----Original Message----- From: Max Wyss [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 6:16 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Brian Mihalic Subject: Re: [PDF] Adobe 6.0 "Features" Importance: High There have been quite a few things which have changed. That is true. There are features which I don't like either. 1. app.execMenuItem("Paste") has indeed been dropped. This is as far as I remember documented in the Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Reference. I don't know why, but it does indeed contain a certain security issues. 2. This is of course so, because the menu structure has changed. I am not too happy with this because of the compatibility issues. On the other hand, the internal names should not really have changed. The short term workaround would be to sniff for the version and execute the according code. 3. This behavior is NOT a change of the feature, or an assumption, but it is a question of the factory default settings of the preferences. This is a bit of a mess, and it should already have been communicated to "Adobe". There has indeed not given much care about compatibility issues. 4. The size is 4096 Bytes. This is indeed insufficient for storing a temporary version of the form data when you have a complex form. It used to be higher, as you state. There have been people around who made quite a good and elegant use of it. However, there were some idiots who mentioned this almost every day in public, and "Adobe" noticed it, and thought it were not what they had planned the persistent global variables for. There is not much we can do about it, except getting our buying power together and require that this limitation gets lifted. It is normal that software vendors make it no longer possible/easy to get older versions. There are still some Acrobat 5.05 packages out there in the stores. Also, older versions of Reader should be downloadable from the Adobe FTP site. I must say that the compatibility issues have been neglected with the introduction of Acrobat 6. Well, such things require a certain sense of responsibility, which has to grow within people... Hope, this can help. Max Wyss PRODOK Engineering Low Paper workflows, Smart documents, PDF forms CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland Fax: +41 1 700 20 37 or +1 815 425 6566 e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.prodok.com [ Building Bridges for Information ] ______________________ Shameless Plug: My next conference appearances and workshops: * Workshop by Essociates Group in Chicago, IL, September 29 to October 1, 2003 (http://www.essociatesgroup.com) * PDFConference 2003 in Anaheim, CA, November 9 to 13, 2003 (http://www.pdfconference.com) * And, as always, available for on-site workshops/tutorials/consulting. _________________________ Just in case anyone is interested (and doesn't know like me), I've found a few new "features" in Reader 6.0 that one should note when making PDF fields with Acrobat 5.05: 1. app.execMenuItem("Paste") is no longer a valid function in Reader 6.0. This script worked fine with older versions of the Reader (5.0 - 5.1, and 4.05). For some reason though, they've seen fit to either remove this from the list of accepted JavaScript code, or they've changed it's syntax somehow (not having a copy of Acrobat 6.0, I am unable to determine which case it is). 2. The Execute Menu Item commands are of course different now so you have to author everything in Acrobat 6.0 which means the PDF will only work with the Reader 6.0 (according to what's been repoted to me--thanks Duff Johnson), since it's not for some strange reason backwards compatible. 3. There is an interesting change to the Full Screen behavior in Reader 6.0. In earlier versions, you had to tell it through code if you wanted a mouse click to advance through the pages. Now, however, it is ASSUMED you want the mouse click to advance the pages automatically. You need to code in a line that tells it otherwise (app.fs.clickAdvances = false;). 4. From what I understand from reading posts on this forum, Reader 6.0 has a DRAMATICALLY smaller glob.js filesize (2 KB I think). If this is true, those individuals trying to utilize that file for data storage REALLY have to be frugal with what their form stores. It's now really only good for very small 1-2 page forms. Adobe is REALLY pushing for EVERYONE to upgrade to 6.0 apparently. A fellow court official stated that she tried to get licensing for the 5.0 Adobe version, and it was VERY difficult (but possible still). That's to be expected I suppose when a new version is released, but I would expect backwards compatibility to be better (this isn't MicroSoft you know). Since we post our PDF's to the public, we can't DEMAND that everyone use the 6.0 Reader, because such a large population of people out there are still using the 5.0 version. I hate to force our applicants to sit through another 8.0 MB download on their dial-up connection just to address a few backwards incompatibility issues. Maybe a newer version of the Reader will come along (hope hope) that will be a little more backwards friendly. This is just a small list I've made up so far that really only deals with some coding differences. Just wanted to let others know of these issues in case they're still trying to author with Acrobat 5.05. Maybe I've saved someone from some trouble. To change your subscription: http://www.pdfzone.com/discussions/lists-pdf.html
