PDFs on Ipad using IWP

[jreed3363]

Hello, wondering if anyone else has encountered this: I have a solution that is accesed via IWP, and when a Supercontainer field has a pdf, on a computer it works perfectly well to download the document. Some users have started accessing it on an ipad, and when they click the pdf icon, instead of it downloading and opening, it opens within the supercontainer field, and can't be scrolled, so only the top two-thirds of the first page can be read.

Is there something I can change so that in iOS the user can read the pdf?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

James

[epeeler]

The webviewer is going to do whatever the default behavior for Safari is in those situations. If they have their Safari set to automatically open files, that's what it's going to do.

[mbsteed]

SuperContainer is working well for us so far. However, I am having the same issue with Word documents on iPads as well. My questions is why does it open in the container field rather than a new window? If those same people using iPads download a pdf or document from a regular web page it loads in a new window but with super container files it opens in the container box, which is useless because they can't see it and worse yet it makes it seem like nothing happened. Surely there is a way of opening the file in a new window rather than the super-container field. This is a significant problem because many users have iPads. I was hoping the latest update would fix that because it talked about mobile computing access. Why would supercontainer treat the container field as a new window?

[jrie818]

If those same people using iPads download a pdf or document from a regular web page it loads in a new window but with super container files it opens in the container box, which is useless because they can't see it and worse yet it makes it seem like nothing happened. Surely there is a way of opening the file in a new window rather than the super-container field. This is a significant problem because many users have iPads. I was hoping the latest update would fix that because it talked about mobile computing access. Why would supercontainer treat the container field as a new window?

When you say "SuperContainer in the container box" what exactly do you mean? Do you mean it opens in the Web Viewer and not in a new window? SuperContainer works in the "Web Viewer" not in a container field. Now, assuming that what you meant was "Web Viewer", well duh, of course it won't open in a new windows because you put it in the web viewer. I wouldn't say it's "useless" because it's not a nice word to say especially when you have no idea what you're talking about nor know exactly what the heck you're doing. Sorry for my "not so nice" words.

Anyway, think about this and forget about SuperContainer for 1 minute. How do you open up a new window in a FileMaker IWP solution? Exactly! the Open URL script. What you need to do is create a button on your layout with Open URL script pointing to the "RawData/targetfile.doc" file in your SuperContainer server. I've tested it using iPad, iPad2, iPhone4 and iPhone4S and that's a word document file and you can save it in iBooks as well. PDF works the same way also. If it doesn't work for you, then you're doing something wrong.

Peace.

*Edited - Correction, only the PDF can be saved in iBooks. But both Word doc and PDF can be previewed in the safari.

[mbsteed]

When I say Super Container box, I mean the Super Container field (terminology may be getting in the way). What do mean by the Web viewer? Read what I said one more time, the term "useless" was not referencing Super Container but the end-user experience. I agree, "useless" is not a nice word, however, the end-user experinece is useless if the end-user cannot see a file that they click on to download. Why would I need to put special coding into the system to accommodate just iPads, shouldn't it be responding the same as with any other platform (laptop or desktop). It works fine on every other platform, why not the iPad? ....and if I don't know what I am talking about then isn't that the point of asking the questions, ...to find out. I am no expert in SuperContainer but I am here to find out more. I think you need to read more carefully. By the way I don't follow your example either with the "RawData/targetfile.doc" not sure how it would know what file to get since there are multiple files associated with each Filemaker record.

[jrie818]

When I say Super Container box, I mean the Super Container field (terminology may be getting in the way). What do mean by the Web viewer? Read what I said one more time, the term "useless" was not referencing Super Container but the end-user experience. I agree, "useless" is not a nice word, however, the end-user experinece is useless if the end-user cannot see a file that they click on to download. Why would I need to put special coding into the system to accommodate just iPads, shouldn't it be responding the same as with any other platform (laptop or desktop). It works fine on every other platform, why not the iPad? ....and if I don't know what I am talking about then isn't that the point of asking the questions, ...to find out. I am no expert in SuperContainer but I am here to find out more. I think you need to read more carefully. By the way I don't follow your example either with the "RawData/targetfile.doc" not sure how it would know what file to get since there are multiple files associated with each Filemaker record.

I know right? Terminology is getting in the way.

Web viewer is that tool I use when designing my FileMaker layout to point to my SuperContainer files.

Read what you said one more time. I see, the "useless" was referring to the "end-user experience". I wonder what made it useless for them though.

You're right, you don't need to put special coding into the system to accommodate just iPads.

I was also wondering why it works fine on laptop and desktop but it not on iPad. Hmmm...

True, the point of asking question is because you don't know what you're talking about and you want to find out more.

Read it again carefully this time.

Sure, you don't have to follow my example it's just an example that works for me anyways. It might not work for you because you're not sure how it would know what file to get since there are multiple files associated with each of your FileMaker record.

There, I agreed to everything you said. So are we cool now? Good luck with your SuperContainer field troubleshooting.

[mbsteed]

...so I interpret the lack of concrete suggestions here as a "no", downloading files from SuperContainer doesn't work on the iPad as one would expect and there doesn't appear to be a work around.

[jrie818]

Why would I need to put special coding into the system to accommodate just iPads, shouldn't it be responding the same as with any other platform (laptop or desktop). It works fine on every other platform, why not the iPad?

...so I interpret the lack of concrete suggestions here as a "no", downloading files from SuperContainer doesn't work on the iPad as one would expect and there doesn't appear to be a work around.

If you don't mind putting a "special coding" then there's a work around and it does work and I can prove it. However, it seems like the "work around" wouldn't work in your particular situation.

[Smef]

IWP on iPads is going to have a lot of funny behavior. Downloading files and opening them probably isn't going to work that well in general on an iPad, because of the funny ways iOS manages file storage. I would recommend using FileMaker GO to access filemaker databases on iPads rather than using IWP. I believe you will find a much better user experience in general when using FileMaker GO.

The default behavior of clicking a SuperContainer document in a web viewer on an iPad will be to handle the document through the normal ways the browser would hand that on the iPad. Usually this is to open the document in a new window if Safari can handle it, though again you may have some funny behavior when trying to do this in IWP, as IWP isn't optimized for iPads like FileMaker Go is.