[PATCH REQUEST] PDF View Improvements

[htowncls]

i dont get anything when i click on repository viewer.. can anyone help?

[tarirene]

I don't know what you mean - but the patches should all be working in preware now

[zeushunt]

Excellent patch.
Thanks lbgshi

[pdc3ven]

mmmm a cold can of wd-40 after a long run yumm

also happy about the return of the search feature functionality, wahoo

[Shadowcat]

Originally Posted by tarirene

I don't know what you mean - but the patches should all be working in preware now

Ok, I'm running into a weird bug, and I'm wondering if it's just me. Preware does still require you to install the Extract PDF Viewer before you can install either Enable Landscape PDF or PDF Redux. It looks like the Hide Header patch will install without it. The odd thing is that my com.palm.app.pdfviewer keeps getting emptied somehow. What I mean is that the folder itself is still there, but all of the app files are completely gone. I noticed this after I had used the Repair Utility a couple of times and it kept having to reinstall those particular files. After a lot of digging, I tracked down what I believe is the repository for the Extract PDF Viewer application at WebOS Internals. I downloaded it to my computer and extracted the files to take a look, and the org.webosinternals.pdf-viewer-extract-app directory in that ipk is empty as well. So am I right in thinking that when the two PDF patches require you to install the extraction app, it's actually causing your pdfviewer folder to be overwritten by an empty folder?

So as of now, I have no PDF Viewer icon in my launcher and I can't seem to recover it. I've uninstalled my PDF patches, recopied the contents of com.palm.app.pdfviewer onto my Pre, and rebooted, but there's still no icon. I probably need to run the Repair Utility again, but I don't have a spare moment right now. Anyone got any bright ideas?

[tarirene]

Originally Posted by Shadowcat

So am I right in thinking that when the two PDF patches require you to install the extraction app, it's actually causing your pdfviewer folder to be overwritten by an empty folder?

I don't think so; a blank ipk without a patch file should just do nothing. I tried it on my phone a while back and, indeed, it just does nothing. A lot of people have been having their pdf viewer disappear on them, though, so something is amiss.

As for your missing icon, someone posted stock files here and you could grab it out of the zip file and use webosqi to put it back on your phone, if you dont want to use the repair utility.

[Shadowcat]

Originally Posted by tarirene

As for your missing icon, someone posted stock files here and you could grab it out of the zip file and use webosqi to put it back on your phone, if you dont want to use the repair utility.

Thanks for posting that, but that's the weird thing - I had already pulled the stock app files out of the doctor and used WinSCP to drag them onto my Pre. So the files were there where they belong in my operating system, but there was still no icon in my launcher. It's as though there's something else missing that completes the application. For whatever reason, when I ran your Hide Headers patch, my PDF Viewer icon finally showed up in my launcher! I was so excited. It worked and everything and I thought I finally had it fixed ... until I rebooted and it went away again! This is so frustrating. The app files are there but the app won't show up or run or anything. Anyone have any ideas? It's got to be user error, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Originally Posted by tarirene

I don't think so; a blank ipk without a patch file should just do nothing. I tried it on my phone a while back and, indeed, it just does nothing. A lot of people have been having their pdf viewer disappear on them, though, so something is amiss.

Well, you were right about that. After further research, I've found the reason why my files were getting deleted in the first place - every time I installed a pdf patch that required the Extract PDF Viewer app, when I uninstalled it, I would also uninstall Extract PDF Viewer. I just looked at the script for that, and as it turns out, it's a really simple script that simply does: rm -rf com.palm.app.pdfviewer/*

Well, that would explain it. *palmface* If I'd just looked at the script sooner! But until today, I was unaware that the extract app was no longer necessary. So for anyone who has had their PDF Viewer disappear, it's probably because you uninstalled Extract PDF Viewer. You'll have to follow the instructions that can be found in the other thread that tarirene linked in the above post.

[tarirene]

Originally Posted by Shadowcat

Thanks for posting that, but that's the weird thing - I had already pulled the stock app files out of the doctor and used WinSCP to drag them onto my Pre. So the files were there where they belong in my operating system, but there was still no icon in my launcher. It's as though there's something else missing that completes the application. For whatever reason, when I ran your Hide Headers patch, my PDF Viewer icon finally showed up in my launcher! I was so excited. It worked and everything and I thought I finally had it fixed ... until I rebooted and it went away again! This is so frustrating. The app files are there but the app won't show up or run or anything. Anyone have any ideas? It's got to be user error, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Yeah, I don't understand this problem at all. My suggestion I guess would just be to remove the pdf viewer and start over - perhaps you could install it in a different folder, like /media/cryptofs/apps/palm/usr/applications/com.palm.app.pdfviewer ? No idea if that would make any difference but that would be what I'd try.

Well, you were right about that. After further research, I've found the reason why my files were getting deleted in the first place - every time I installed a pdf patch that required the Extract PDF Viewer app, when I uninstalled it, I would also uninstall Extract PDF Viewer. I just looked at the script for that, and as it turns out, it's a really simple script that simply does: rm -rf com.palm.app.pdfviewer/*

Well, that would explain it. *palmface* If I'd just looked at the script sooner! But until today, I was unaware that the extract app was no longer necessary. So for anyone who has had their PDF Viewer disappear, it's probably because you uninstalled Extract PDF Viewer. You'll have to follow the instructions that can be found in the other thread that tarirene linked in the above post.

Haha, awesome, that explains a lot... Great find.

[Shadowcat]

It really is the strangest thing. I ran the Repair Utility and replaced any missing or modified file that seemed like it might affect the PDF Viewer, but I still wasn't seeing the icon in my launcher. Any time I installed a patch that modified the viewer, the icon would show back up, but as soon as I rebooted, it would go away again. Jason wrote a patch that gives us advanced options in the launcher menu and one of the advanced options is to do a rescan of applications, but that did nothing. Finally, I tried using the rescan option in the Luna Manager app, and it showed back up. So basically now, every time I reboot, I can use Luna Manager to do a rescan and it'll show back up. It's not perfect, but the rescan is pretty quick and it's better than having to keep patching the damn thing every time I want to be able to use the app. Luckily, I hardly ever need to open PDFs, but I just want to be able to should the need arise.

Oh, and I tried your suggestion of installing it in /media/cryptofs and it does exactly the same thing - shows up on a rescan, but vanishes on a reboot. I'm hoping that 1.4 will fix the issue. If it doesn't, I'll probably be doctoring at some point in time. Anyway, thanks bunches for trying to help!

[fs65a]

I do not have any PDF patches installed so I want to install PDF Redux as it seems to have features of the other patches. When I try to install PDF Redux from Preware I get an install message:

"Error Installing: See IPKG Log"

Is anyone else having this problem? Any ideas on getting this installed?

Thanks.

[tarirene]

You're going to need to paste the IPKG log error into the thread for anyone to be able to help you out. In the meantime you could try running the webos repair utility, restoring all the files related to the pdf viewer it prompts you to, restarting the phone, and trying to install the patch from scratch.

[Shadowcat]

Holy crap!! I found it! I found out why my PDF icon kept disappearing whenever I rebooted. On a completely unrelated issue, I was digging around in my Pre's file structure using WinSCP -- mostly just trying to learn more about how things work -- and I stumbled across /var/luna/data/.hidden-apps.json which just so happened to have only one item listed:

[ com.palm.app.pdfviewer ]

I don't know how or why my PDF viewer is listed here, but I deleted that line, saved the file and rebooted, and now my PDF viewer shows up just fine. Unbelievable. What are the odds that I would stumble across that file more than two days after I'd given up on figuring it out? I cannot express how twitterpated I am right now (although my use of the word twitterpated might give a hint. )

For fs65a and ratchetjaw, I second what tarirene said - you need to view the ipkg log and post what it says here for anyone to have any idea how to help you.

[tarirene]

Hey, thanks! I looked in my pre's file system and somehow the pregame app flashlight had a line in there. That app keeps showing up after I keep uninstalling it, maybe that was part of the problem with that app. I deleted it and will see.

[Shadowcat]

Cool. I hope that works for you. It completely fixed the problems I was having with PDF Viewer.

[c_man]

Originally Posted by lbgshi

- Return to top of page after page change (currently, if you're scrolled to the bottom of a page, and change to the next page, you're still scrolled to the bottom, so you constantly have to scroll all the way back up)

These would greatly improve PDF View, and make it usable. Other people have complained about the same issues, and I think these patches/this patch would be highly applauded.

Any news on this feature?

[lbgshi]

No one's done anything related to that yet. If we could get in touch with the PDF Redux creator, perhaps he'd be able/interested...

[brmermaide]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned BUT it would be great to be able to delete PDFs once we are done using them. I can't seem to find a way to delete these files, I have tried to do various things but it still shows up. PATCH anyone? Also, the ability to move the files up or down once in the PDF viewer screen would also be helpful!

[Sukiyaki]

I reinstalled the pdf redux via webosqi, and it installed just fine, but the landscape isn't working completely. The landscape icon makes the pdf landscape, but I can't zoom in to make it larger. There is also an option to use the accelerometer to rotate to landscape, that isn't working at all. Am I missing something or does it need to be updated further?


Edit: nevermind. I'm the slow one. The patch is just fine!

[Motorhead777]

I guess I found my first mission when my phone get to me. If I cant get this working right i may as well send it back : (

[Motorhead777]

I need support for acrobat 4.0 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

following from palm support!!


Just for added info, I think you have encountered this error message when opening up a PDF file on the Pre, either obtained thru USB sync or attachments from email messages,

PDF View has encountered an error. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Error message:
Render document failed


After testing several sample files there could be some other PDF Producers that are still not supported but so far the ones below are tested to work as simulated on a Pre with 1.1.0 software version.

> acrobat distiller 8.0.0. (mac)
> acrobat distiller 7.0.5 (mac)
> acrobat distiller 7.0 (windows)
> acrobat distiller 5.0.5 (windows)

> ovis pdf-office by Universe Software

note : PDF files without PDF Producers will also work as simulated....

Thank you for your support of Palm products.