[cw-discuss] Executing Native Acrobat Reader from CX Windows Program Passing a Pathname To It. - SOLVED

[Frank S. Bernhardt]

Frank S. Bernhardt wrote:
> Greetings everyone.
>
> I'm doing a pilot project a customer's site to replace a user's 
> windows pc with Linux (isn't this how it always begins?).
>
> She's currently running OpenOffice 1.1.4 for word processing,  Mozilla 
> Mail for email,  Adobe Reader for pdf viewing and MultiView 2000 to 
> connect to their Unix server via telnet to run back office applications.
>
> This seemed like a no brainer; new pc, install OpenSuSE 10.2, 
> OpenOffice 2, Thunderbird, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0.8 native and 
> konsole  with vt420 emulation to connect to the server. Simple. And it 
> works. Sort of.
>
> Here's the problem.
>
> One of the applications she uses on the Unix server allows her to look 
> up customer invoices; when were they sent, have they been paid, etc. 
> The invoices are stored on the server in PDF format so the application 
> shows a link to the pdf document that, under MultiView 2000, is 
> click-able and starts up Acrobat Reader passing the link to it. The 
> user can then view the invoice, print it or email it using her regular 
> email MUA. The command that is run looks something like:
>
> file:///AcroRd32.exe I:CUSTOMER#/123456.pdf
>
> Of course the pdf's are on the server and I mount the SAMBA shared 
> invoices directory on the windows box as the I: drive.
>
> So, the first problem is that konsole does not have the facility to 
> define rules to execute a program based on a certain received string, 
> passing that string to the program.
>
> This is where crossover comes in. CX runs MultiView 2000 beautifully. 
> I can create the rules just like under windows. It even runs Acrobat 
> Reader and displays the pdf.
>
> But...
>
> Under a win98 bottle:
>
> a) I could only run Adobe 5.0.5 which does not have email capability
> b) When I print the pdf on the remote Unix server laserjet it prints 
> the raw PDF code rather than rendering it properly.
>
> Under a win2000 bottle:
>
> a) I can run Adobe 6 which does have email capability but it wants to 
> run the email program that's inside the bottle, not the Linux program 
> (Thunderbird).
> b) As in the win98 bottle it to prints the pdf on the remote Unix 
> server laserjet in raw PDF code rather than rendering it properly.
>
> So...
>
> I managed to get MultiView 2000 to execute the native Acrobat reader 
> by using the following command:
>
> file:///Z:/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/acroread.exe 000021.pdf
>
> where acroread.exe is a symbolic link to acroread
>
> And the command works. I can view the pdf, email it using the native 
> Thunderbird, and it even prints beautifully.
>
> However, I could only get it to work if the pdf file is in:
>
> /home/frank/.cxoffice/win98/drive_c/Windows/profiles/crossover/My 
> Documents
>
> Otherwise the native Acrobat Reader executed can't find the file.
>
> I've tried copying 000021.pdf to "/"  using paths such as /00021.pdf, 
> Z:/00021.pdf, etc.
>
> Copying to:
>
> /home/frank/.cxoffice/win98/drive_c
>
> doesn't work either.
>
> Basically the reason it worked with just the file name is because that 
> is the last place where Acrobat Reader looked and found the file, ie. 
> Acrobat Reader is not able to find the file when given the path 
> through the windows command line yet when I run the exact same command 
> line from the bash shell, it finds the file.
>
> So, is there anything special I need to do when executing a native 
> Linux program from a crossover windows program in order to pass a 
> pathname to the program?
>
I was going about this the wrong way.

Under windows, I was telling the program to run file:///AcroRd32.exe 
"pathname-to-pdf"

I was trying to do the same thing under CX using the native Linux 
program but for some reason it could never find a fully qualified 
pathname to the pdf, only a simple path name.

I didn't realize that just executing the file would cause the extension 
to be recognized and the associated application to be run on the file. 
Stupid me...

This is what I ended up doing:

a) Executed:

/opt/cxoffice/bin/cxwinassoc --extension pdf \ 
/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/bin/acroread

(I had installed CX as root).

b) I mounted the Unix SAMBA share under the root as /invoices.

c) Changed the application's action on the recognized string to:

file:///Z://invoices//<P2>//<P4>

which expands to:

file:///Z://invoices//BLUESUxxxxxx//000021.pdf

Thanks to Steven Edwards at Codeweavers for setting me on the straight 
and narrow. The answer was in faq:

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/docs/crossover-pro/troubleshooting#CXWINASSOC

which I had previously read but didn't clue in at the time that typing 
in the pdf file name would cause an associated app to be executed.

Of course I already knew that but was so stuck in a singular mindset 
that I didn't SEE it.

Happy CX'ing and Cheers.

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