What is this error?

NenB
Hi,

I am using portable ff and via usb working on different comps. Now I get this error, when trying to open paper:

could not be opened, because the associated helper application does not exist. Change the association in your preferences.

Any suggestions?
  • adamsmith
    that's a FF message and it means exactly what it says.
    You have FF set to open - e.g. - pdfs with acrobat reader, but don't have acrobat installed (since you're running FF off the USB stick).
  • mibigo
    Hello,

    I reopen this discussion because I got the same error with the following caveat: I also run FF portable though not on a USB stick put from my pc. I have to run a portable version, because I don't have admin rights and can't install the Zotero extension on the FF version I have on my pc. Btw other pdf files from the same FF portable open without any problem as I have Acrobat reader installed, moreover recent FF version have also a built-in pdf reader. it is only when i launch a pdf fom zotero extension that i get the error, and I get this just from a few days; I also removed zotero ext and reinstalled the most recent 4.019 yesterday, got pdf working normally, and today again I get this error. How's that?

    kind regards
    Michele
  • adamsmith
    check that you have the launchNonNativeFile hidden preference
    https://www.zotero.org/support/preferences/hidden_preferences
    set to false (the default).
    If it is, you'll have to poke around in your FF's settings for opening files - they're at times a bit odd, but that's what Zotero works with.
  • mibigo
    thx, indeed you are right: the launchNonNativeFile hidden preference is set to the default; and it looks more a problem of FF settings; However I never understood very well how this settings for opening files work in FF; in fact, when you open a pdf file on the web you can have two behaviors:
    1) it opens immediately (through the plugin or acrobat reader or wathever else program you have associated with pdf file, by default is uses the adobe pdf plugin in FF window)

    2) with some kind of links to pdf files (never got how they differe from i mentioned above), the web aithor seems to want the browser to force the download of the pdf file. That's why in FF, you have several different settings to opens adobe documents one is simply called "pdf file" which is set by default to open with pdf plugin in FF, but you have also an "adoobe document /apllication/force-dowload) setting which is set to "ask" )

    The point is that zotero treats a pdf attachment as a force-download type of pdf file, while a zotero item which has an URL pointing to a pdf file on the web, opens it straightforward through the plugin.

    However this is a bit puzzling. Moreover FF seems to often forget these settings, maybe because of the portable version or of the non-admin rights, as even after setting the behavior after sometime I'm asked again what to do. And last but not lest you cannot set this applicatio/force-download setting to the adobe pdf plugin in FF, as it lets you only chose amongst adobe reader or another program, but it doesn't offer you to chose the plugin.

    Sorry for being verbose, but thought was useful.
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