UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums Thread Like Summary - Strange Show PDF behavior

I recently discovered that there is a show pdf feature that allows viewers to see the pdf inline. However, when I try to view it in Safari I get an error message: No preview available. When I try to view it in Chrome, I get a blank window. I searched for the problem here and found a discussion on it. Both browsers could view the pdfs in that thread. https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...ords/pdf/Search/true/show-pdf#Post263230

I tested the page on my iPhone 11 (using DuckDuckGo), and some of the pdfs show the No Preview Available error and some show blank pages. I also tested on a Windows 10 box with both Chrome and Edge, and had similar results.

Is there a php extension that is required for these to work?

My sig has our present setup.

The PDF viewer uses Google Docs to inline your forum's hosted PDFs on demand.

This is the URL that is accessed when clicking the "Show PDF"
//docs.google.com/gview?url=https://www.EXAMPLE.com/forums/files/3182.pdf&embedded=true

1. your browser must not be blocking access to the 3rd party website, google.com.
iirc, DuckDuckGo browser blocks this unless you've updated a setting to allow access to google services.
iirc, Configuring any other browser's Privacy & Security settings from "Standard" (default) to "Strict" will also disable access to 3rd party websites in the same way that it disables access to ads and embedded content where its domain does not match the source's domain.

2. your forum must be using Full URLs, so that the URL can be opened by the PDF viewer.
Control Panel > Paths & Database

3. it may be a docs.google "hiccup." try refreshing the page. yes. seriously.
could easily happen when trying to display the PDF before it has had a chance to upload to google's servers. if anything is delayed within the process, you might be notified with an option to view it directly on google's website or that it could not be displayed at all. a large PDF may cause this.