Java PDF Adobe Acrobat Viewer
I've been doing some extensive research on the easiest approach to *freely* open PDFs with Java.
jPedal is amazing at this, but I'm running out of time to program the interface (JPedal's advanced interface with printing / etc is pay-only). In order to make documents readable I've had to do a lot of image exporting and resized image caching, which I can't dedicate much more time to.
Adobe offers their "Acrobat Java Bean" Application.(*Note: They are offering "free licensing", contrary to what [url=http://www.planetpdf.com/planetpdf/acrobat/bean/main.html]PlanetPDF[/url] states)
My obstacle with jPedal is time. Microsoft Office (and soon OpenOffice) can be opened though the application, skipping the document decoding thats necessary for PDFs.
My obstacle with Adobe is Fonts.(It used to be deprecation, but Adobe now packages their Java Bean with all of the Deprecated APIs needed to get it working. Just rename to acrobat.zip, extract stubs to acrobat.zip, rename to acrobat.jar) The claim that "Some fonts don't work" in other threads is misleading. With Java 1.5 / 1.6, No fonts seem to be working. (Images work fine)
Can anyone help me out here? I've attached screenshots for reference of viewers and some others of the application I'm working on. Any source code is available upon request. Cheers.
Screenshots:
[url=http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2410/jpedalviewerho3.png]1[/url] [url=http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/3292/adobeviewerbg8.png]2[/url] [url=http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/121/documentdatabasetg8.png]3[/url] [url=http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/9751/debuglogyb4.png]4[/url] [url=http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/2929/splashscreenaj9.png]5[/url]
-FBL
[1791 byte] By [
FBLa] at [2007-11-26 22:20:09]
# 1
Alright...
Been cramming at this for a while now, and I've found that the Font issues with Adobe's Java viewer are being caused by the non-Adobe pdf creator ([url=http://www.primopdf.com/]PrimoPDF[/url]) that our company uses.
Ironically, these PDFs display perfectly with jPedal, and Adobe Acrobat Viewer for Windows, just not Adobe Acrobat Viewer for Java.
Now I have to find a way to fix the font issues on a hex-level with these documents. Any suggestions, drop a line. Cheers.
-FBL
FBLa at 2007-7-10 11:16:52 >
# 4
To update my progress (or lack there of)
jPedal is still looking like a viable solution, with work.
The Adobe Acrobat JavaBean is fairly worthless right now. The font issues cannot be resolved, and I can't even get it to Open a PDF on Linux at all, which keeps me from using it altogether.
I'm still up for ideas. I'd even be happy making calls to the COM server (If Adobe worked w/ it like iTunes, Internet Explorer, Word do) until a Java solution is implimented down the road.
Today, I tried another solution: JDIC.
It can open your default browser and Acrobat will open within that.
Unfortunately, it prompts for Download on the Kubuntu machine I'm testing on (then opens with Xpdf).
JDIC seems to use native binaries (EXE/DLL for windows, BIN for linux) to launch external calls to the Operating System. Of course, this requires a compiled binary for each platform. It works well for loading web pages within a Java applet, but it's a lot of overhead to just launch a browser that may not behave properly.
Another idea is the Java 1.6 Desktop class. It will let you open a file with it's default application.My testing (and bug reports) conclude its incompatible with Kubuntu. (or more specifically, the linux KDE desktop):(
Yesterday I subscribed to adobeacrobatviewer@yahoogroups.com and I'm hoping perhaps a more robust jPedal solution is in the works.. :\
FYI - My version of the Acrobat JavaBean is dated for 1998, making 9 years old.
Cheers.
-FBL
FBLa at 2007-7-10 11:16:52 >
