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Inspiring
December 18, 2012
Question

Plug-ins Don't Work in Reader XI; Work Fine in Reader X

  • December 18, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 8697 views

We're looking to upgrade from Reader 9.x to Reader XI.  A bunch of us in IT have been running Reader X without issue for some time so we didn't anticipate any problems with XI. I tested the upgrade process on a machine with 9.x and although it worked fine, none of our add-ins worked.  I performed the following on a machine with XI with no positive results:

  • Performed repair or 'modify' installations of the applications in question that load add-ins/plug-ins into Adobe
  • I verified the .API files were in in the proper location
    • One plugin (caseMap) goes into reader\plug_ins
    • Another plugin (Interwoven) goes into reader\plug_ins\Interwoven
  • Verified protected mode was disabled via registry
    • reg add "HKEY_USERS\DefUser\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\11.0\Privileged" /v bProtectedMode /t reg_dword /d 0 /f

Again: Going from 9.x to X we don't have a problem, and usually adding the .API file is all that's necessary to get the plug-in working again.  But when going from 9.x to XI or X to XI, the plug-ins no longer work.

Has something drastically changed between X and XI that would make these add-ins cease to function?

I've reached out to the vendors & am awaiting responses.  In the mean time, is there anything I failed to check or something else I can do?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

New Participant
May 29, 2014

This post was created quite some time ago.  So I was wondering if anyone may have found a fix for it?

EnterpriseHelp
Community Manager
Community Manager
May 29, 2014

The fix is stated above: make sure 3rd party plugins have been created correctly for the current version.

Ben

Brainiac
December 18, 2012

Yes, vendors may well need to produce updates. This is discussed in the Acrobat SDK forum but if you aren't the developer that won't help you.

It's good practice Never to assume that any kind of add-in will work on an upgrade to the host product, and to check with vendors for every one.

JuliusPIVAuthor
Inspiring
December 19, 2012

Thanks for the response.

We tend to not assume it'll work & blindly fire off updates.  You see, when we (IT Only) upgaded to X from 9, the new 'protected mode' feature caught us off guard.  We assumed we had done something wrong with the packaging and so spent a few days making sure we crossed our t's and dotted our i's before escalating to the vendors.  And when we reached out they came back with a very simple "ohh yeah just check off a box", making us feel a bit foolish.  I wanted to be sure there wasn't some other new measure put in place to further try to secure Reader.

As it turns out,

  • LexisNexis had to update their package for CaseMap 10 for Reader XI, and they have no plans to patch earlier versions.
  • Autonomy / Interwoven is set to release FileSite 8.5 SP3 Update 6 in Q1 which will support XI.

As you stated, vendors have to produce updates.

New Participant
May 29, 2014

We have upgraded to the Autonomy/Interwoven FileSite 8.5 which is supposed to be set to support XI.  However, what we noticed is that the plug in works for Adobe Acrobat XI just fine but doesn't seem to work for Adobe Reader XI. API files have been verified to be in proper location (plug_ins\interwoven). 

In Adobe Reader XI, the "Save to Worksite" command in the File menu is ghosted out.  However, there is only ONE instance when we noticed the plugin works and the "Save to Worksite" command does work and that is specifically when the user loads a PDF from the USPTO PAIR website.

Has anyone else encountered this?