FMPA 11: Save As PDF Error

[Dana G]

I am running files hosted on FMS 10.0.2.206 on Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition.

I am running FMPA 11.0v1 on Windows XP SP2.

I have Adobe Acrobat 9.3.1 Pro installed.

I am currently the only user in my organization with FMPA 11 installed. When I create PDFs, they cannot be opened by anyone else. Those who try get an error message that states, "There was an error opening this document. Access is denied."

They also cannot be deleted by other users. Only I can open them and delete them.

I can create pdfs outside of FileMaker with no issues.

I have re-installed, both FM and Acrobat and still get the same results. I have tried pdfing from a local .fp7 file and from those hosted with FM Server with the same results.

Please let me know if this is a known issue. If so, please address how I can fix it. I can't install FM on my other workstations until this is fixed.

[IdealData]

I am running FMPA 11.0v1 on Windows XP SP2

Minimum spec is Windows XP SP3.

[Dana G]

Is that enough to cause this issue? My IT dept does not want to install SP3 on our systems.

[Dana G]

There must be more to this issue. I have installed the SP3 update to my workstation as well as one in our conference room that is running FMP11 (not Advanced like mine). There's a random group of people that can't open these files. All of the ones that can't have SP2 but some of the ones that can have SP2 also.

I just can't imagine that I'm going to have to police the people that are receiving these .pdfs via email and make sure they have SP3 installed. That's a nightmare. I can see the flood of people calling saying we can't open your PDFs. That affects our business when we can't guarantee that those outside our office will be able to view the data they need. SP3 had a lot of issues and I'm sure others out there haven't installed it. FM should have taken this into consideration.

Could it, by chance, have anything to do with the fact that we are running Server 10? We've worked this way before (had Server 5 and Client 6) without issue. However, I'm now waiting on additional RAM to be installed on our server to accomodate FMS 11.

[Vaughan]

Are you using the script step to create the pdfs? If so, what settings is it using? Does it have security assigned like a password?

It sounds to me like a file permissions issue. What are the OS file privileges on the pdf?

[IdealData]

My IT dept does not want to install SP3 on our systems.

SP3 was the requirement from FM10 upwards - your IT people are stopping your systems advancing, which is the opposite of what should be happening.

[LaRetta]

SP3 was the requirement from FM10 upwards - your IT people are stopping your systems advancing, which is the opposite of what should be happening.

Actually, no, SP2 was minimum requirement for vs. 10. FMI changed their documentation several months later and admitted they made a mistake in specifying SP2 (but many companies had purchased or upgraded to vs. 10 by then). But even now, FMI has confirmed that they support SP2 with vs. 10 and there have been no reported issues with SP2.

Upgrading a very large corporation is a major and costly undertaking and the decisions most times don't only come from the designers of FileMaker (which is usually only one very small piece of large corporations' software arsenal.

There have been many discussions about it ... one of them from FMI's website is here .

I agree with the 'wish' that an IT department would stay up with our needs but to say that an IT department is hurting advancement of a solution is simply not seeing the big picture.

NOTE: After FMI was told there were mistakes in their website requirements AND in the Readme pdf which shipped with the trail version and the purchased version, they FINALLY corrected their online minimum requirements.

Problem is ... they never corrected their Readme pdfs which shipped with the trial version nor the purchased version so for the next seven months as vs. 10 was being sold throughout the world, many customers downloaded the trial, presented to their IT departments (and all read that SP2 was acceptable), and moved forward on that basis. FMI should have corrected their documentation - ALL DOCUMENTATION - immediately when it was discovered. This is not a small thing to change for large corporations!!

Edited April 10, 2010 by Guest
Added note

[John Kamm]

Greetings. I don't believe this is a Windows version issue. If you look at the PDF file properties, Security tab you will see the Groups and User names who have permissions for the file. For some reason FM 11, using the Save As PDF button in the Status panel or the script step, creates files without a lower level users/groups. PDFs I created with Schubec plug-in have the lower level user group included.

Obviously the permissions groups will vary from one system to another but you will find that if you add a lower level users group permission to your file, your readers will be able to open/delete it as you intend. FM 10 does add the lower level of permissions so PDFs created are accessible to others.

Question is, what do we do about it? FM10 uses Adobe Library 8.0 v 1.6. FM11 uses the same library, v 1.8, if that helps anyone. Schubec uses Ghostscript.

[Dana G]

My pdfs have zero security permissions via Adobe and my OS has the same as others who are unable to open the files I create. The pdfs are not being created using a script. Just right clicking in the white space and clicking Save/Send As...

We create a TON of pdfs every day and I feel like I'm wasting my company's money by #1 - not knowing this issue existed prior to purchase and #2 - not being able to install the software that our staff needs to be more efficient.

How do I get FM, Inc. to look into this issue ASAP?

[Computer Geek]

I have run into this exact same problem today. I am running FileMaker Advanced 11 on Windows XP SP 3 on my pc. I have about 100 users on FM 9 that share pdf files created from our FM solution. The ones created by me in FMA 11 will not open on anyone else's pc.

As John posted above, I looked at the security tab on the pdf file. On the ones created in FM 9, all the appropriate groups are given security privleges. However, on the FM 11 files, the only group that is given security privledges is the administrators group. Additionally, the "allow inheritable permissions from parent to propogate to this object" is unchecked, whereas in FM 9 files, it was checked.

Has there been a solution found to this problem? Any help is appreciated.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Guest

[Perren]

Hi Dana,

It's a known bug - I found it within a couple days of the release. Luckily someone did find a workaround.

Read all about it here: http://forum-en.filemaker.com/t5/Report-a-bug/FM-Pro-v11-and-quot-Save-as-PDF-quot-permission-bug-Windows/td-p/58712

Thanks,

--Perren