URL links are getting corrupted by Acrobat Reader.

[Robin273851776am9]

We create password protected PDFs which contain links to external URLs.
These links work fine when we view the generated PDFs in chrome and firefox.
But the links are getting corrupted by Acrobat Reader.
One or more characters are getting corrupted (e.g "https://mywebiste.com/1234567" is trying to link to "https://mywebiste.com/123:567" or "https://my?ebiste.com/1234567")

[kglad]

<moved from using the community >

[Bernd Alheit]

How have you created the links?

[Robin273851776am9]

The PDFs are created using jsPdf

[Bernd Alheit]

Use the link tool in Adobe Acrobat.

[Robin273851776am9]

Thanks Bernd, but that is not viable as we are generating very sophisticated PDFs automatically.

These links work absolutely fine in chrome or firefox PDF reader - it is only Acrobat Reader that corrupts the URLs

[Bernd Alheit]

Acrobat Reader can't change links.

[Robin273851776am9]

I know, but it is not reading them correctly, whereas chrome and firefox PDF readers are reading them fine

[Bernd Alheit]

Can you share a sample file?

[Robin273851776am9]

Hi Bernd

Apologies - took a while to generate one - plus I had to ask consent from the client to use their details.

If you hover over the link at the top in chrome PDF Reader (for example), you see the correct URL, but in Adobe Reader it is corrupted.

Thnks very much.

Kind regards

Robin

[Bernd Alheit]

The document is password protected. I can't check the links.

[try67]

I examined the internal structure of the file (independently of Adobe) and Acrobat is showing the actual URL used for the link. My guess is that the PDF plugins in the browsers don't display the Link objects at all but just interpret the file's contents and display a link over the plain-text URLs they find.

You can test it by moving the link object elsewhere on the page. Does it still work in the browsers, or is it ignored? Is the URL text still clickable, even though there's no Link over it?

At any rate, this is something you'll need to fix in the application used to create the PDF.

[Robin273851776am9]

The screenshot shows in gray what appears on chrome - which is correct, but what's in yellow (in Adobe Reader) shpws "screfd" rather than "scread".

[Robin273851776am9]

The text that is displayed is different from the link itself - because that goes to another server to be redirected

[try67]

I see what you mean now... That is strange. The link does point to the right URL, but it seems Acrobat misinterprets it. Can you share a non-secured version of the file, please?

[Robin273851776am9]

I could tweak the code to create an unencrypted version, but my suspicion is that the corruption might not occur without it.

I do not have a password for the file I sent you - I would need to look into the code of the 3rd party compnent to see how it does the encryption.

I will get back to you.

Thanks Bernd

[Robin273851776am9]

sorry I see you are try67 not bernd - forgive me I am new to the community and not used to the layout yet

[Bernd Alheit]

May be that you have two links at the same place.

[try67]

Yes, there are two overlapping links there, which is not good, but both lead to this incorrect address (despite pointing to the right one), so I don't think that's the issue.

[Robin273851776am9]

I have made numerous attempts to create a corrupted unencrypted file, but as I expected, I have not suceeded after about 20 attempts.  The corruption on the encrypted files is not consistent - some of the links are OK, but as you see, some are not

[Robin273851776am9]

I have looked at the code and it looks as though the default password is "" - is that of any use to you in further understanding the file I sent you earlier?

[Bernd Alheit]

I have resaved the document with Acrobat and now it shows always the wrong link.

[try67]

This is not a good thing, either. The password shouldn't be empty. My guess is this is causing some kind of corruption throughout the file.

[Robin273851776am9]

OK - thanks - I can easily add a password - let me try and see if that helps

[Robin273851776am9]

I tried with a password, but the corruption is still there 😞