IFS Cloud - PDF viewed in browser vs download and view

Hi Paul,

 What’s the reason for the difference?

I think you see a problem here and I'm trying to understand what it is.

Let me explain what we have here first:

The eye-icon, the preview (although it's called View...) is using a built-in feature of the Aurena client that allows viewing a number of file formats (PDF files, text files, HTML files plus a number of image, audio and video formats). If you look closely, you will see the file is displayed on top of the page, and not in a new tab using the web browser's own preview feature (you know, Chrome can "preview", or should we simply call it "view", both PDF files and many other file formats). So it's an Aurena feature that is used there.

Now, the download command, which is really more like View Document in IEE, and once you have the Aurena Agent installed, just calls out to Windows to open the downloaded file. We do not, and cannot, "preview" it in IFS, when using the agent. If you disable the agent and try download the file will just be saved to disk and you have the option to open it in various ways (automatically, if you like.)

Is there a way to get the eye/in-browser preview elsewhere?

No, or not today at least. With the Aurena Agent installed, we can in theory open any external (to the browser) program. I think you want some other kind of viewer opening up "inside" IFS Cloud, am I right? Perhaps some cloud-based document viewer? We are thinking about a replacement for Oracle AutoVue, and that feels related here.

Perhaps you can write about the background for your question?

hi Mathias,

thank you for the assistance as always

I have a customer that, i guess, likes the way the preview feels (quick and intuitive) and that it doesn’t lead to a gradual buildup of files in the checkout/temp path that will need to be cleaned up periodically.

Maybe they have another specific concern, I can check with them.

Anyway, the question i received was basically “can we get the preview feature/behaviour on the document revision page so that it acts the same way as the attachments pane”.

Seems like a reasonable request … since, as you wrote, we have created Aurena with the capability, why not make it accessible from other places? 😉

perfect, thank you again.

@Mathias Dahl The problem that we are finding with the Aurena view is that it does not view pdf files correctly in IFS10.  it does not display all of the content of the pdf file.   more current versions of pdf files contain layers of content, the pdf viewer embedded in aurena does not handle these files properly.  If you download and view, you see all of the content, if you only view with the eye you do not see all of the content.

How do I force the aurena client to down load and view, or how can the embedded viewer be updated to view pdf files properly.   note, if you scan a file into pdf it displays fine as it is “flattened”, if the pdf file is generated any other way it does not.

Greetings. Did this inquiry/enhancement ever make it any further? Our users as well would like the attachment eye “View” PDF doc option to open an an alternate/sperate window and not over the screen they are viewing.

Thank you.

It sounds like your users should use the Download command/button instead then. With or without the Aurena Agent, you can have the downloaded file being opened in their PDF viewer of choice, "outside" IFS Cloud.

@Mathias Dahl thank you for the suggestion. They were hoping there was an alternative to downloading every attachment they want to view.

I think I'm misunderstanding you. I thought you did not want to use the "Eye" (view) command since it took over the IFS screen. Downloading and viewing will solve that problem. Also, why is downloading a problem? Can you explain the problem with a use case perhaps?

Thanks!
 

@Mathias Dahl I think we’re on the same page, just using different words. :) 
They want the “view” eye to open the document in an entirely different page. Whether is in a different tab or a PDF document. The dislike for the downloading and viewing option, although it does open in a separate page is that they have to select the additional open icon from the download and all these downloads get saved to their computer. Not a deal breaker, just feedback. Ultimately they want the eye to do what the open download does.

mkozlowski wrote:

@Mathias Dahl I think we’re on the same page, just using different words. :) 
They want the “view” eye to open the document in an entirely different page. Whether is in a different tab or a PDF document. The dislike for the downloading and viewing option, although it does open in a separate page is that they have to select the additional open icon from the download and all these downloads get saved to their computer. Not a deal breaker, just feedback. Ultimately they want the eye to do what the open download does.

 

You can configure your web browser to have it automatically open the downloaded files of certain types, then you don’t need to click that button there.

Or use the Aurena Agent, pick your option 🙂 

That option has been moved in Chrome, but I found it by right clicking the downloaded file entry and then selecting the option below:

After doing that, the next time I view/download a file, even without the Aurena Agent, the file is opened automatically.