Symptoms

When using the HTML embed command to surface a SP mounted pdf in a SmartForm a curious interaction betwixt AdobeAcrobat and IE is expressed.

In this particular situation we were using a concatenation expression to construct a link to a pdf in a given SP library. We then used the HTML embed command to implant this link into a literal data label and thereby get the pdf to surface in an iFrame on the form. The URL was formed using an item reference which was being populated to a text box. The problem here is that the embed command seems to be firing before the expression has had a chance to retrieve the required item reference from the text box. This produces a temporary error:

Acrobat could not open XXXXXX.tmp because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged.

 

Diagnoses

That error is tied to an interaction between adobe and IE as this does not occur in other browsers.


 

Resolution

While there is no K2 solution as this is not a problem caused by K2, the software is versatile enough to meet mission in spite of this hold up. Rather than evaluating the literal data label on form load we can instead call a rule to set the literal property of the control after the form has loaded there by ensuring our expression grabs the required item reference.