Help with error when using fpdf

PHP
1

I am using FPDF to create a dynamic certificate that is displayed in the users browser and have come across a problem if the user has the full version of Adobe Acrobat installed instead of only Acrobat Reader.

If they have Adobe Acrobat installed then I get the following error:

“Acrobat plugin”
“! Could not launch Acrobat”

Anyone else experienced this problem and can offer a solution to fix it?

My code to display my certificate is as follows:



$pdf->Output('certificate.pdf', 'I');
2

You could try force download?

$pdf->Output(‘certificate.pdf’, ‘D’);

3

Thanks for the reply but unfortunately the certificate needs to be displayed to the user in the browser.

4

Hmm … I wonder what reason governs that it has got to be a .pdf then?

5

Cups - I think the client wanted it to be a pdf so the user could save it as a single file and also be able to print it out and it be a reasonable quality. I guess otherwise it could have been simply an html page. The certificate includes several graphics too.

Are you thinking there may be a better solution rather than a pdf?

6

No, just musing on your (clients) reasons.

I book airline tickets with barcodes etc printed on them to take to scanners at the airport and it all works fine as html - having said that you have to make sure your print.css style sheet is thoroughly tested, and not expect too much of it ( colored borders etc etc) as much depends on the local users browser ( show date, page number etc) and printer settings.

If its good enough for an airline, I don’t see the problem, but then again I’m not your client.

Conversely I cannot understand why the pdf just starting up on its own outside the browser is a problem either, unless you have links inside the pdf file that are supposed to be clicked by the user?

7

In hindsight, the only time I used FPDF (which I thought was great, BTW, rock on Olivier) was for an intranet application where I could whinge at the IT dept to set up their browser/PDF alignments correctly so I never came across this issue.

Did you ask on the FPDF forum? I always found answers to all my questions on there, and that was (many) years ago.

HTH