Launching PDF's from your Director Movie

[mezmeero]

I have recently been racking my brain trying to figure out how to make my simple director movie launch PDF's. Here's the scenario: I have been asked to develop a single page with a few logos, some text elememts, and four buttons that link to 4 respective PDF files. This will ultimately be saved down to a projector that will be burned to a cross-platform CDROM. I have fully developed the user interface side of this coin, but have no clue as to how to get this to work properly. You see, I'm a offset print designer mostly by trade and I have not worked with Director since 1997. So, I'm totally out of my element here! From what I have read and what I have gathered from talking to folks in this scene, it seems that this takes a bit of doing and possibly some extra money. So my questions for this forum are these:

1. Do I need to purchase a third-party Xtra to have my PDF's launch from Director or is there an easier/cost-efficient way to go about this?

2. When I finally get this PDF link-up issue solved, do I need to embed a copy of Acrobat Reader on the CDROM just in case someone actually doesn't have Reader or a compatible version?

Any imput would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Mezmeero

 

[madchem]

Same problem about me. In the technical pages on macromedia site

http://www.macromedia.com/support/director/ts/documents/open_app_faq.htm

it says that if you want to open a file you have to put in the same folder the app and the file, then you go with lingo instruction. But I can't figure how can I put a workin AReader app on a CD (and it has to be cross-platform). There is a link to the Adobe tech page that deals with it but Adobe wiped out.

 

[kennethkawamoto]

If you want to open a document using Director "open" command, you need to specify the path to the application. If you place Acrobat Reader on the CD, then you will know the path to the Reader using "the moviePath".

I would use BuddyAPI "baOpenFile" command instead though, as you won't need to specify the application path. If "baOpenFile" returns an error, then you can take the user to the Reader installer, which you can include in the CD.

 

[mezmeero]

Well I have managed to successfully link my movie to the corresponding PDF files with the help of Buddy API. Now that it works, I am now faced with the even larger hurdle of creating a tri-platform (OS9, OSX, Windows) cd for the mass public. Sheeesh! I created a projector and burned that to a cdrom and tested it on a few Macs here at the office. NO success. While the PDF buttons actually worked, simple bitmaps and text didn't show up. It appeared that the projector application was looking for linked images. Also, the roll-over buttons would only appear when you actually rolled over them. I couldn't believe it! I assumed the function of a projector is to stand alone so anybody could use it. Wouldn't one think that embedding images is crucial to this process? Why is this program so difficult?

Mezmeero