Disable "Save" functionality when opened trhu web application in IE (.net)

[Guest]

HI

I am working on a Web Application developed using .net

Through the application the users will open pdf files available on the server and view it, in Internet explorer.

Now,since this is a sensitive data, we want to restrict the users from "Saving a copy " of the Pdf file.

How can i prevent the user from saving a copy of the pdf file

I observered that there are options to disable copying, selecting, printing of the pdf file. But i dont find an option to disable Save feature

If there are no straight forward approach for this, I would like to know any roundabout ways of achieving this

Thanks in Advance.

Thanks

Babu

[lrosenth · Accepted solution]

You can NOT prevent users from saving ANY TYPE of document from the web - PDF, HTML, JPEG, etc. It's a "feature" of the web.

What you CAN DO is prevent users from being able to use the PDF once it hits their own disk. To do this, you use powerful Digital Rights Management solutions...

[Guest]

HI

I am looking for any indirect approaches which will provide the required output of my scenario.

When displaying a pdf file to my users through the IE Webpage, is there a way i can prohibit them from saving the copy

I have seen some discussions about third party tools providing this feature.

would like to know how is it possible.

Thanks

[lrosenth]

Was there something unclear about my earlier message that makes you restate the question?

My answer won't change - nor will anyone else's...

[Guest]

Okay. Appreciate your swift answer.

Its clear for me that we cant prevent save option of a pdf file when viewed from IE.

Reason for restating the question is. I stumbled upon this site.. http://www.fileopen.com/products.php

He has demonstrated a pdf viewer in IE with the save button being disabled.

That made me curious if there is round about solution for acheiving this. like writing custom plugin for IE or injecting javascripts in pdf or anything else tat i am not aware of, which i would like to know

I am not trying to restrict the save , when opened in pdf viewer.

I want to know the answer of one more option. When we remove the file menu buttons from the viewer, the user can still say "Ctrl+shft+S" to save the file. Can we programmatically overwrite this save shortcut , when tried on the IE ( not the PDF viewer).

I would like to know.

Its hard to believe that still there is something that cant be achieved through programming

Thanks

[lrosenth]

In that case, they are using a custom PDF viewer - not the standard Adobe Reader. Also, that doesn't prevent the user from right-clicking on the link in the browser and just doing a "Save link to disk...". Or for the person who really wants the file, looking at the page source and just loading the URL being passed. So there are always ways to get the PDF...the important thing is protecting the actual content NOT the method of access. (also note that the FileOpen product is ALSO doing DRM to protect the content, as I am recommending).

[Guest]

HI

In your reference about DRM, I have checked that it is being used to prevent copying the content , printing etc.

But its not clear for me as to of the features , that will cater to my need, prevent saving a copy

If there is anything available, please let me know

thanks

Babu

[lrosenth]

You don't want to prevent saving - you want to prevent MISUSE of the file AFTER it has been saved...

That's where good DRM comes into play

[Guest]

HI

Thanks for your reply

I have read a white paper detailing the features of Adobe DRM features.

But my requirement is slightly more stringent than I can achieve with DRM features.

DRM will allow me to provide restrictions on usage of the pdf files being circulated among the users of the enterprise .

But my requirment is , being a part of Healthcare application the end user should not be allowed even to have a copy of this data on their machine.

It should just be displayed as part of the application in IE and restrict the users to copy the data in it and even save a copy of the file to their machine.

Thanks

Babu

[lrosenth]

How would you prevent the user saving an image/JPEG in a web page/HTML? You can't! Anything that has a URL can be downloaded or saved to disk. That's how the web works.

So what you need is to control that the document can't be used once it has been downloaded...

[roniem450]

what is your attitude about lrosenth? maybe all that fire should be reserved for figuring out how your company (adobe) can provide digital publishers with a reliable, affordable and easy to use (for both publishers and readers) DRM solution

[Cyberidian]

I disagree. I also work for a healthcare company and have a problem similar to Babu's with similar restrictions. We don't want the PDF saved at all. DRM is not what we are looking for. Also it may be possible to work around this by using screen print, but I am not looking to prevent users from complicated hacks - I just want to prevent the PDF form from being saved in a basic way. My research so far says that Adobe requires that LiveCycle be purchased to control and manipulate PDFS, but iTextSharp will do it with a little development effort.

[lrosenth]

How would you prevent a user from saving a JPEG image on your website to their disk? If you can solve that, then you can solve the PDF problem. It's EXACTLY the same issue.

[lola32011]

To irosenth....  What may seem obvious to you is neither kind or helpful.  I have same busienss probelm and need to solve it.

[umzi]

Hope this can help:

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110316081421AAMqnez

[Test Screen Name]

Thank you for posting that, but the reply in that post is just baffling, as it describes two things, neither of which will have the slightest effect on the bueiness problem. To lola32011: many people have this problem and wish to solve it. This does NOT make it possible to solve it.

[TheSenseMakingTeam]

I had a very complicated discussion with a colleague that is a very skilled Web Developer. The problem about the security of web content is pretty difficult.

We came to the conclusion that this problem is about humans and not programmability. It is impossible to secure any content after it has been made available to the user, other than making things difficult without proper authorized software. Still, you cannot blame the user from doing something that is normally permitted by the software environment.

I think that this post is not about ultra-high security, but instead people just want to prevent the ability to store the PDF by using a built in function like Save. They just want to make the users understand that the content is not intended to be stored permanently when it is displayed in a pop-up, for example. That’s all.

Anyways, this is something that can be programmed in a matter of hours and then integrated in the following versions of PDF and Adobe Reader.

[alinefluiz]

I don´t know if you resolve your problem or not, but I find a solution tha was fine to my situation, opening in a PDF Viwer.

I blocked the copy and print option as you probably know how, and them blocked the options Hide Menu Bar and Hide tool bars

from File - Properties - Initial View. So, the save option is omitted.

For me these options were disabled, if you face the same problem, this can help you: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4013698.

My users don´t have the knowledge to unblock the bars, so for me was enough.

[Bernd Alheit]

Its hard to believe that still there is something that cant be achieved through programming

You can create your own client-server solution.

[NekoMitsu]

You can prevent saving a type of archive, using windows file screen, security permitions or other server tools. However, this would block saving ANY pdf, not just this one in your application. But this has nothing to do with the adobe's software, though.