Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

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MarkPhil
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Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by MarkPhil »

One of my favorite features of XChange Viewer is being able to open PDFs in Chrome with a full-featured viewer. However, Chrome is phasing out support for npapi plugins like XChange Viewer—users can manually enable support for these plugins for now, but apparently this will no longer be an option as of September 2015. I would hate to lose the ability to use XChange Viewer in Chrome so I'm just curious about whether the developers have a plan for keeping the plugin compatible with Chrome. If this isn't likely to be feasible, I'll start keeping an eye out for other options.
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi MarkPhil,

Thanks for the post - we're looking into possible resolutions, but Google is making it very difficult by scantly documenting anything. It's not a question of us maintaining compatibility, it's a question of whether or not Chrome will offer a way to build such a complex plugin.

Up until 2 days ago, the only option that we could see, was to build a Chrome Extension, which requires the application to be created in any one or more CSS, JavaScript and HTML5. None of these languages lend themselves to building something as complex as a PDF Reader plugin, it may not even be possible. It's not just us, a lot of companies are suffering the issue, Adobe, Foxit, Nitro, etc, all included.

It now looks like there may be an option to build something using Chrome's PPAPI and/or Google's NaCl and PNaCl API's, but it's not yet clear whether or not this is complex enough to allow us to do what we need.

Cheers,
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MarkPhil
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by MarkPhil »

Thank you, Will, for the detailed response. I hope Google cooperates and thanks again for creating such a great product.
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi MarkPhil,

Not a problem, glad to help :D
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mathes electric supply co., inc.
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by mathes electric supply co., inc. »

I see this was last discussed in May. By chance has anything changed? Is there a fix or workaround for this issue?
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi mathes,

I'm afraid that there's been no update here. Chrome's alternatives are not good ones. The only one, that we have been able to find, that would allow us to do this (PPAPI) has been deemed relatively unstable and the performance of PPAI plugins are...... not good.

I'm going to bring this up at our next support meeting, next week, to see if we have a more definitive answer, or even a definitive "No, it can't be done" to provide users.

Thanks,
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mathes electric supply co., inc.
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by mathes electric supply co., inc. »

Thanks for the update! PDF-Xchange is a great product. Hopefully this can be resolved.
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

:D
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claude vidal
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by claude vidal »

Will - Tracker Supp wrote:... I'm going to bring this up at our next support meeting, next week, to see if we have a more definitive answer, or even a definitive "No, it can't be done" to provide users.

Thanks,
Is there a "definitive" answer on this?

Chrome's internal PDF viewer gets you to a point, but it's light years from PDFXchange. Having to first download then open with PDFXchange Editor takes some of the fun out of it.
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Claude,

I'm afraid that we will not be offering a way to view PDF's in Chrome. As mentioned in a previous post, the API that they provide is extremely limiting and very, very buggy.

The best that we can manage is the same as Adobe: we'll offer a plugin that will automatically open the PDF in our stand-alone Editor, with no interaction necessary.

Thanks,
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claude vidal
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by claude vidal »

Will - Tracker Supp wrote:Hi Claude,

I'm afraid that we will not be offering a way to view PDF's in Chrome. As mentioned in a previous post, the API that they provide is extremely limiting and very, very buggy.

The best that we can manage is the same as Adobe: we'll offer a plugin that will automatically open the PDF in our stand-alone Editor, with no interaction necessary.

Thanks,
That would do it for me, great, thanks.
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

:)
rik van der schalie
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by rik van der schalie »

Will - Tracker Supp wrote:Hi Claude,

I'm afraid that we will not be offering a way to view PDF's in Chrome. As mentioned in a previous post, the API that they provide is extremely limiting and very, very buggy.

The best that we can manage is the same as Adobe: we'll offer a plugin that will automatically open the PDF in our stand-alone Editor, with no interaction necessary.

Thanks,
Any idea when this will happen? I've just installed PDF Xchange editor v6, but no Chrome plugin.

T.i.a.
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello rik van der schalie,

It will happen in one of the next few builds, but for now I do not have an exact date yet, sorry!

Regards,
Stefan
janetb
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by janetb »

PDF XChange Viewer is my default pdf viewer. Since it cannot be used on Chrome, is there some other viewer that can? The Chrome pdf viewer does not even allow for searching a pdf file opened from a search link. Thanks.
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Plan for Chrome plugin when npapi support ends?

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi janetb,

I'm afraid that the new API that Google forces people to use is not really stable or powerful enough to build a PDF plugin.

Cheers,
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Will Travaglini
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