1 - Overview

This document specifies how URL Open Actions have been implemented in Acrobat 4.0. The URL Open Actions feature allows a PDF file to be opened using a URL that specifies both the file to be opened plus actions to be performed once the file is opened. Acrobat 3.0 supported both single named destination and AuxDataHandler actions in the URL. These actions were separated from the URL by a single # character. The portion of the URL that follows the # is called the fragment [RFC1808]. The list of available open actions has been extended in Acrobat 4.0 as described in this document. URL Open Actions are supported through Netscape and Internet Explorer. URL Open Actions are also to be supported in HTML via parameters of the EMBED or OBJECT tags.

1.1 Acrobat 3.0 Review

Below are three examples of URL Open Actions that were supported in Acrobat 3.0 and 3.01.
http://dosai/blah.pdf#nameddest=Chapter6 http://dosai/blah.pdf#Chapter6 http://dosai/blah.pdf#fdf=c:/temp/data.fdf

The first two examples are of named destinations. The second example defaults to a named destination because no key=value pair is found. The third example shows the use of an AuxDataHandler. The AuxDataHandler is registered by a plug-in using a call to AVRegisterAuxDataHandler. Currently known AuxDataHandler target names are xml, acrohls and fdf. An AuxDataHandler cannot register by the reserved target name nameddest. When used with Netscape or IE browsers, named destinations are passed to EWH (External Window Handler plug-in) and applied to the PDF after the PDF file is opened. The named destination action is in fact performed as an idle proc.

2 - Design Specification
The URL Open Actions in Table 1 are provided in Acrobat 4.0.
Table 1: Proposed URL Open Actions Description Named Destinations Goto page. Takes the viewer to the pageth page in the document. The documents first page has a page value of 1. page must be an integer. Zoom and Scroll. A scale value of 100 gives 100% zoom. Scroll values left and top are in user coordinates (0,0 is top left of visible page, regardless of document rotation). All values must be floats or integers (e.g. 100 or 12.3) Set the view of a page. Fit, FitH, etc. are keywords as defined in the PDF Language Specification. Scroll values left and top are in user coordinates (0,0 is top left of visible page, regardless of document rotation). left and top must be floats or integers (e.g. 100 or 12.3) Syntaxa nameddest=nameddest_string_ in_PDF page=page Embedb Yes Yes

zoom=scale zoom=scale,left,top

No

view=Fit view=FitH view=FitH,top view=FitV view=FitV,left view=FitB view=FitBH view=FitBH,top view=FitBV view=FitBV,left viewrect=left,top,width,height pagemode=bookmarks pagemode=thumbs pagemode=none (default) scrollbar=int (1 or 0) toolbar=int (1 or 0)

No

Set view rectangle. All values must be floats or integers. Bookmarks, Thumbnails displayed

No No

Scrollbars on/off Toolbar on/off

No No

a. Words in italics are user specified variables. b. Indicates whether action is supported when PDF is used with HTML EMBED tag.

It is possible to have multiple URL Open actions in a single URL. These actions are separated by the ampersand & character. The choice to use an ampersand was arbitrary as there is no standard convention for separating data in a URL fragment. Commands are not case sensitive (except for

the value of a named destination). There can be no spaces in the URL line. Individual actions (separated by & and #) can be roughly no greater then 32 characters in length. Only one digit following a decimal is retained for float values. Legal URL examples:
http://dosai/blah.pdf#namedest=Chapter6 http://dosai/blah.pdf#page=3 http://dosai/blah.pdf#page=3&zoom=200,250,100 http://dosai/blah.pdf#zoom=50 http://dosai/blah.pdf#page=72&view=fitH,100 http://dosai/blah.pdf#view=fitb&nameddest=Chapter3 http://dosai/blah.pdf#pagemode=none http://dosai/blah.pdf#pagemode=bookmarks&page=2 http://dosai/blah.pdf#xml=c:/blah.txt http://dosai/blah.pdf#page=3&pagemode=thumbs&xml=c:/blah.txt

Actions are processed and executed from left to right as they appear on the URL command line. Because all actions are executed, it is possible that later actions will override the effects of previous actions. It is therefore recommended that actions be appropriately ordered. For example, page actions should appear before zoom actions.