Opening PDFs

[rmullis]

I have several PDFs that I want to place in folder /www/profoundui/htdocs/profoundui/userdata/custom and open when the user clicks on an icon or button on the webpage. So far, I haven't been able to get this to work. Is this possible in ProfoundUI? And if so, what is the proper format and/or PUI API to use to accomplish this?

[Scott Klement]

The /www/profoundui/htdocs directory is your Apache DocumentRoot. So any PDF documents in profoundui/userdata/custom should be directly accessible to the browser by opening a URL.

For example:
http://YOUR-SYSTEM:8080/profoundui/user ... R_FILE.pdf

With that in mind, you could code a hyperlink that points to that location, or you could add some JavaScript code that runs on an event. Either one should be able to open the PDF.

Does that help?

[rmullis]

That almost helps Scott.

How would I get the URL for a system dynamically? This particular application will be running on multiple systems for our customers, each with a different IP address/URL.

[Scott Klement]

You'd use what's known as a "relative" URL. Which is to say, you leave the http://server:port out of the URL. The link is then "relative" to whichever page it was invoked from.

So if you did a hyperlink like:
<a href="/profoundui/userdata/custom/YOUR_FILE.pdf">Click for PDF</a>

It would point to the PDF file on the same system as the page that sent the <a> tag to the browser. If you move it to another system, no need to update it, because it'd be subsequently invoked from a page on a different system.

(You can also omit part of the directory structure if you want, and make the link relative to a given point in the directory structure. But, I think in your case, you probably want the whole directory path.)

[rmullis]

I tried using an icon with the onclick event set to pui.link("/profoundui/userdata/custom/manuals/menu.pdf"). It keeps coming back telling me the link is not found. I have verified that I have the file name and path correct.

I am trying to do this all in ProfoundUI. I am not proficient in the ways of the Javascript and web stuff.

[rmullis]

Nevermind Scott. I solved my problem. It was a loose connection between the brain and hands. I had my folder with my manuals in /profoundui/userdata. I meant for it to be in /profoundui/userdata/custom, which is what I had in my webpage.

[Scott Klement]

That's a great way to do it, very nice!