| Overview |
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| Certain browser option settings may prevent
you from being able to log into the Registered Support pages
of this web site and cause problems with viewing previously
entered information. Also, some information found on this
web site is in the Adobe PDF format. This page explains
how to set up your browser for optimum use of this site and
how to install and set up the Adobe Acrobat reader on Unix. |
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| Contents |
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| Browser Setup |
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Introduction
In a perfect world all browsers would be equal! Unfortunately nothing
is perfect, and thus when creating a web site it is often necessary to
balance the capabilities of browsers in the attempt to find a format that
appears similar amongst the various types and release levels.
On a Windows environment, it recommended that this site be viewed with
either Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5 (or higher) or Netscape V6 (or higher).
On a Unix environment, Netscape V6 is preferred over V4.x, though the
binary may not be available for all platforms. If it is not available visit
http://www.mozilla.org
where you may find a compatible Mozilla browser.
You may ask "Why this recommendation for browsers?". Well, the reason
is that the Netscape 4.x browser and the IE V5.x browsers went in decidedly
different directions on some very important issues in their attempts to
gain world browser domination. As a result, a web page may appear slightly
(or even greatly) different across browsers. One of the most important
differences is in the DOM (Document Object Model) specification. This is
the specification of the objects within a web page and the method by which
one refers to them. Now, with basic textual pages, the DOM differences do
not have much impact, but with Dynamic HTML (DHTML) the different DOM
specifications cause great headaches for programmers. Fortunately, the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
has taken the reins on this issue and has released a DOM Level 1 (and higher)
specification to which all new browsers or browser levels should attempt
to comply. Both IE V5.5+ and Netscape V6 generally adhere to the new DOM
Level 1 specification (though still with nagging differences), thereby making
life easier for all.
The following sections describe how to set these options on a per-browser
basis. Note that the exact location and wording of these options may vary
with platform (Unix vs Windows) or version.
Cookie Security Note:
This web site uses cookies to set and determine the Login ID of a user
when they log in to either the Registered Support Menu pages, or to the
Administration Menu pages, and to control subsequent access.
These cookies are only available to the originating web server
(i.e. the Aventec web server), and are only retained during the current
browser session and disappear when all browser windows are closed.
Furthermore, these cookies are in no way used by Aventec to track user
activity.
There are different levels of cookie settings possible on
the various browsers. At a minimum, cookies must be allowed in some
manner. Choosing a level in which you must manually allow
a cookie to be set will eventually become very tedious. Conversely,
disallowing all cookies will prevent use of the Registered poritons of
this web site. At a minimum, we suggest to set your browser to allow
per-session cookies and make them available only to the originating server.
General Browser Settings
No matter what browser you use, the browser will need to have the
following options enabled:
- JavaScript
- Style Sheets
- Images
- Cookies
- Dynamic Fonts
- Web Page Colors
Netscape V6 Settings
In the Edit / Preferences... window
- Expand the "Advanced" menu by selecting the arrow graphic
- Choose the "Advanced" menu item
- In the "Advanced" window, Enable the "Enable JavaScript for Navigator" option
- Choose the "Cookies" menu item
- Select either the "Enable all cookies" option or the "Enable cookies for the originating web site only" option
- Choose the "Images" menu item
- Select the "Accept all images" option
- Choose the "Appearance / Fonts" menu item
- De-select the "Always use my font settings, overriding web page font" option
- Choose the "Appearance / Colors" menu item
- Select the "Always use the colors and background specified by the web page" option
Netscape V4 Settings
In the Edit / Preferences... window
- Choose the "Advanced" menu item
- In the "Advanced" window, select the "Enable JavaScript" and "Enable Style Sheets" options
- Select either the "Accept all cookies" option or the "Only accept cookies originating...." option
- In the "Advanced" window, select the "Cache" menu item. For the "Document in cache is
compared to document on network" choose "Every time"
- Choose the "Appearance / Fonts" menu item
- Select the "Use document-specified fonts, including Dynamic fonts" option
- Choose the "Appearance / Colors" menu item
- De-select the "Always use my colors, overriding document" option
Internet Explorer (IE) V5
Unless you have specific settings to IE options default settings are
OK. To set defaults, select the "Restore Defaults" button in the Tools /
Internet Options... window. Otherwise set the following options:
In the Tools / Internet Options... window
- Choose the "Temporary Internet files - 'Settings'" button
- For the "Check for newer versions of stored pages", Select
the "Every visit to the page" bullet.
- Choose the "OK" button to save the setting
- Choose the "Security" menu item
- For your current Zone, Choose the "Custom Level" button
- Scroll to the Cookies section of the displayed list
- For the "Allow per-session cookies (not stored)" section,
Select either the "Enable" bullet or the "Prompt" bullet.
- Choose the "Advanced" menu item
- Under Accessibility, De-select the "Always expand ALT text for images"
- Under Multimedia, De-select the "Show image download placeholders"
- Under Multimedia, Select "Show pictures"
- Under Mulitmedia, Select "Play animations", "Play sounds" and "Play videos"
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| Adobe Acrobat Reader Installation |
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Introduction:
Some documentation found on this site and other sites referenced
in the links
page are in Adobe's "Portable Document Format" (PDF) format.
If your browser wants to down-load a selected PDF formatted file rather
than display it, then you may need to down-load and install the Acrobat
Reader program and/or configure your browser to recognize the file type.
This situation is most common on Unix platforms where Netscape is used,
though it may happen also on Windows systems. (Note that the Windows
platform installation is quite easy and is not covered here).
The following sections explain how to install the
Adobe Acrobat Reader and how to configure your browser
to run Acrobat when a PDF file link is selected.
Unix Installation:
To install the Adobe Acrobat Reader program perform the following steps:
- Select this graphic
to download the Acrobat program. Depending on the platform, you may need 8 Mbytes or more of space for
this file. Choose an appropriate download directory like /tmp or some other temporary file system with
sufficient space. This installation material is distributed as a gzipped tar file. If you do not have
the gzip utility installed on your system, you will have to first obtain the code and install it. Gzip
utility source files and pre-compiled binaries along with installation instructions may be found
here.
- Login as root or from a terminal window issue the "su" command to obtain root privilege
- Enter "cd download_directory"
- Enter "gunzip -c download_file_name | tar -xvf -".
From the tar command extraction messages displayed, take note of the name of the directory into which the
extracted files were placed.
- Enter "cd extraction_directory_name"
- List the contents of the directory: "ls -l"
- Review the "ReadMe" file if present with the command "more ReadMe"
- Install the application: "./INSTALL". (The preceding command should be read as
"period-slash-INSTALL").
- Press the space bar to page through the displayed Usage notice.
- Press "q" to exit from the notice.
- Enter "accept". The amount of free space required to install
the Acrobat Reader is displayed. Verify if you have enough space by opening up a new
terminal window and enter either the
"df -k" or "bdf" command (dependent on your h/w platform). The default
file system is /usr/local/Acrobat4. Depending on how your system has been configured, this
may be the /usr file system or the /usr/local file system. If you do not
have sufficient free space in this file system, you may either increase the file system size or
choose another location (ex. /opt/Acrobat4). The method on how to increase file system or disk space is
beyond the scope of this document. Please refer to your Operating System documentation, your
Systems Administrator or our Q&A database for further information on that topic. If you
need to abort the installation, press "Ctrl-C".
- Either press "Enter" to accept the default installation directory, or enter
the full path to the desired location.
- Answer "y" if asked if you want to create the installation directory.
- At this point the installation should proceed normally. About the only thing that
can go wrong is to run out of disk space, though this should have been taken care in the
above steps
- Make the acroread executable easily found. There are many ways to do this, ranging from
modifying the PATH environment variable to include the path to the acroread executable, to copying
the executable to a directory that is already present in the PATH specification. The easiest method
is to create a link in a directory in the PATH specification as follows.
- Enter "echo $PATH". Verify that /usr/bin is specified in the
returned PATH information. If it is then proceed using /usr/bin with these instructions.
Otherwise, choose another directory that is specified within the PATH. Good choices are
/bin and /usr/local/bin. If you need to make another choice, then substitute that choice
with /usr/bin in the remaining instructions.
- Enter "cd /usr/bin"
- Enter "ln -fs path_to_acroread_executable acroread"
For example: ln -fs /usr/local/Acrobat4/bin/acroread acroread
- To test the acrobat reader type "cd; acroread". The reader should appear after a
short delay. If not check the following:
- Finally, on UNIX, the PATH environment variable specification may be different for different
login userids. You may have to
modify individual userid PATH specifications, or choose a common directory from which to link.
- If you used the "su" command earlier to take on root privileges, then enter
"exit" to return to your normal userid.
UNIX Configuration
The purpose of this section is to configure the Netscape Browser on UNIX to display a PDF document when its link
is selected. Before continuing with these instructions, verify that the latest Acrobat Reader has been
installed as per the above sections. If a PDF file displays correctly, then no further action is required,
though, note that on some platforms, the reader can be invoked as either a true Plug-in or as a Helper
Application. As a Plug-in, the Acrobat Reader and document will display as part of the Netscape browser.
As a helper application, the Acrobat Reader and document will display as a separate application window.
It is your choice as to what you use if both are available for your platform.
Plug-in Setup
- Determine the installation directory of Netscape
- Enter "whereis netscape".
- Enter "more first_path_displayed". From the displayed source
record the value specified for the "MOZILLA_HOME" variable.
- Determine the installation directory of Acrobat
- Enter "whereis acroread".
- Enter "more first_path_displayed". From the displayed source
record the value specified for the "install_dir" variable. What is required
is the value less the /Reader string. Example: install_dir=/usr/local/Acrobat4/Reader.
The Acrobat_directory would then be /usr/local/Acrobat4.
- Copy the Adobe Netscape plug-in to the Netscape plug-in directory
- The Adobe plug-in is located in Acrobat_directory/Browsers/xxxxxx directory, where
xxxxxx is dependent on your h/w platform as follows:
| Platform | Arch/Release | xxxxxx |
| SUN | i386 | intelsolaris |
| SUN | SPARC / 4.1.x | sparcsun |
| SUN | SPARC / 5.x | sparcsolaris |
| HP | HP-UX | hppahpux |
| SGI | IRIX | mipsirix |
| PC | Linux | intellinux |
| IBM | AIX | rs6000aix |
Note: On SUN use the command "uname -r" to determine the O/S Release level.
- Enter "ls -l Acrobat_directory/Browsers/xxxxxx".
Substitute the value of xxxxxx according to the information in the above table.
The returned list must show the existence of a file named nppdf.so. If not, you have
either issued the command incorrectly or plug-in support is not available. Re-check
the command if necessary. If the file does not exist, then you will have to abandon
this procedure and configure Acrobat support as a "Helper Application" instead
as described in the following section.
- Enter "cp -p Acrobat_directory/Browsers/xxxxxx/nppdf.so
mozilla_home_directory/plugins". (Note the previous command should be
entered on one line).
- Enter "ls -l mozilla_home_directory/plugins" and verify
that the nppdf.so file is present.
- Configure the plug-in within Netscape
- Close all netscape windows, and then start Netscape
- Select the "Help" menu item for Netscape (in upper right corner).
- Choose "About Plug-ins". In the displayed table you should see a plug-in
for Mime Type "application/pdf" and the plug-in path should match the
location in which the nppdf.so file was placed in the previous step.
- If the "Enabled" value for the plug-in is shown as "Yes" then
the plug-in is ready for use and you are now finished with this procedure. Otherwise,
continue with the next step(s).
- From the Menu bar choose "Edit" followed by "Preferences... / Navigator /
Applications". Scan the displayed application list for an item that has already been
established for the Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader. Note that the entry may be something like
"Portable Document Format", or "Acrobat Reader", or "PDF Reader",
or "Acroread Program", or something similar. If a pre-existing entry is found,
select the entry followed by the "Edit..." button. Otherwise, select the
"New..." button.
- For both new and edited entries, the form should be filled out as follows:
- Set the "Description" to be: "Portable Document Format"
- Set the "MIMEtype" to be: "application/pdf"
- Set the "Suffixes" to be: "pdf"
- Select the "Plug In" button, and verify the plug-in name to be
nppdf.so
- Select the "OK" button to save the settings
- Select the "OK" button to exit from the "Preferences" window
- Again select the "Help / About Plug-ins" menu items and verify that the
PDF plug-in is now enabled.
- To verify functionality, select a link to a PDF file and verify that the document is displayed
within the Acroread application within a Netscape window.
Helper Application Setup
- Determine the path to the acroread executable
- Enter "whereis acroread". Use the first path displayed
in the following steps.
- Within Netscape choose the "Edit" menu item, followed by "Preferences... /
Navigator / Applications". Scan the displayed application list for an item that has already been
established for the Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader. Note that the entry may be something like
"Portable Document Format", or "Acrobat Reader", or "PDF Reader",
or "Acroread Program", or something similar. If a pre-existing entry is found,
select the entry followed by the "Edit..." button. Otherwise, select the
"New..." button.
- For both new and edited entries, the form should be filled out as follows:
- Set the "Description" to be: "Portable Document Format"
- Set the "MIMEtype" to be: "application/pdf"
- Set the "Suffixes" to be: "pdf"
- Select the "Application" button, and set the application path to
"acroread_path -tempFile %s". Note that the "-tempFile"
parameter is optional. It prevents temporary files (for instance files opened from the
web) from appearing in the "recent files" list.
- Select the "OK" button to save the settings
- Select the "OK" button to exit from the "Preferences" window
- To verify functionality, select a link to a PDF file and verify that the document is displayed
within the Acroread application within a new window.
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| Adobe Acrobat Forms Support |
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Introduction:
Some PDF documents that contain Adobe forms cause the "Save As" dialog window to come up.
This behaviour is because certain forms return Forms Data Format files (.fdf) and Netscape is not set
up to handle this Mime type. To correct this situation, perform the following steps.
Configuration
- Determine the path to the acroread executable
- Enter "whereis acroread". Use the first path displayed
in the following steps.
- Within Netscape choose the "Edit" menu item, followed by "Preferences... /
Navigator / Applications".
- Select the "New" button.
- Set the "Description" to be: "Forms Data Format"
- Set the "MIMEtype" to be: "application/vnd.fdf"
- Set the "Suffixes" to be: "fdf"
- Select the "Application" button, and set the application path to
"acroread_path -iconic %s".
- Select the "OK" button to save the settings
- Select the "OK" button to exit from the "Preferences" window
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