As much as it pained me to do so, I tried generating static files and redirecting, but it still behaved the same way!!!
It's got to be something about iText that the Netscape/Acrobat combination doesn't like. Too bad there aren't any (free) packages better than iText! Has anybody worked with Big Faceless? Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Eastham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Tomcat Users List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 3:54 PM Subject: RE: REPOST: Problems serving PDF to Netscape browsers > Jeff, > > As a last resort, you could write the pdf to a temporary directory > accessible via apache, then send the browser a redirect to that file. That > way, the actual PDF will be served by apache, not Tomcat. You'll obviously > have to tidy up the generated PDFs periodically, although the temp file > methods in java.io.File should help. Also, java.util.Timer is useful for > writing jobs which do clean up tasks. > > This is of course undesirable, but sometimes you just have to do what it > takes to make something work... :-( > > Good luck, > > Andy > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Jeff Larsen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: 14 May 2002 17:01 > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: REPOST: Problems serving PDF to Netscape browsers > > > > > > I've made no progress on this, so let's try again. My dynamic > > PDF is working perfectly with MSIE 4, 5, and 6, but I'm still > > having problems with Netscape (ver 4 and 6) and the Acrobat > > (ver 4 and 5) plugin. I've tried this on various client machines. > > > > With both NS4 and NS6, I just get a blank screen when I request > > my dynamic PDF. They don't even show the Acrobat toolbar. The > > similarities end there. > > > > In NS4, the first request does not launch the AcroRd32.exe > > process. In fact, it fails to read the entire output of the > > servlet and Tomcat (4.0.3) spits out a Broken Pipe exception > > to the logs. If I hit "Reload", however, I get my PDF and the > > plugin works. According to the Apache logs, the first unsucessful > > request returns 6144 of 21212 bytes before the broken pipe. On > > the "Reload", the Apache log shows TWO requests returning the > > full 21212 bytes and Netscape displays it in the plugin. > > > > In NS6, the first request DOES launch the plugin executable, but > > that's as far as it gets. "Reload" doesn't help. My Apache server > > reports the correct number of bytes for the full PDF request, so the > > data seems to be getting to the browser. No exceptions are thrown > > by Tomcat. > > > > In both NS4 and NS6, it works if I configure Acrobat to be launched > > as an external application instead of a plugin. But it is not a > > viable option to impose that configuration on our customers. > > > > I use a servlet mapping that sends requests for xxx.pdf to my > > servlet, thus the browser sees a ".pdf" filename. I also use > > setContentType("application/pdf"). There are known problems > > with MSIE and unknown ContentLength with PDF so I create the > > PDF in a ByteArrayOutputStream so I can know and set the > > ContentLength before writing to response.getOutputStream(). > > > > To take the dynamic nature of the PDF out of the equation, I was > > able to reproduce these problems --sometimes-- when serving static > > PDF files via Tomcat. > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Jeff Larsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 1:44 PM > > Subject: Problems serving PDF to Netscape browsers > > > > > > > I'm running out of hair to pull out here... > > > > > > My ultimate goal is to serve dynamically generated > > > PDF documents generated with iText. I've got it working > > > just fine with MSIE. However, I was just getting blank > > > pages with Netscape (and it wasn't even showing the toolbar > > > for Acrobat). With NS6 I could at least see that it started > > > an AcroRd32.exe process, but NS4 didn't even get that far. > > > > > > So, I did some tests to rule out some variables. I grabbed > > > a handful of pre-generated PDF files and stuck them on > > > my Apache 1.3.23 server. All browsers could display the > > > PDFs just fine. Then I set up Tomcat 4.0.3 to server the > > > same files directly without going through Apache. MSIE worked, > > > but both NS browsers gave a blank page with no Acrobat plugin > > > toolbar. Again NS6 managed to start an Acrobat process, NS4 > > > didn't. > > > > > > My production environment is Apache 1.3.23 and Tomcat 4.0.3 > > > connected with mod_jk. > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > For additional commands, e-mail: > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > -- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > For additional commands, e-mail: > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
