Detecting Adobe Reader

[Ken Ray]

On 4/5/06 9:05 AM, "revolution at duncansoftware.com"
<revolution at duncansoftware.com> wrote:

> I need to detect the presence of Adobe Reader (and the version if possible) on
> 
> Windows 98 thru XP, Mac OS9, and Mac OSX. I have searched the archives, but
> the 
> 
> code I found there was for starting and running Reader with a pdf file. I just
> need 
> 
> to "silently" detect its presence or absence.

Here's a function I use (watch for line wraps):

function stsPathToAcrobat
  switch (the platform)
  case "MacOS"
    put format("tell app \"Finder\"") & cr & \
        format("get application file id \"CARO\" as text") & cr & \
        "end tell" into tScript
    do tScript as "AppleScript"
    if the result = "execution error" then return ""  -- doesn't exist
    else return replaceText(the result,quote,"")
    break
  case "Win32"
    put "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AcroExch.Document\shell\open\command\" into tKey
    put word 1 to -2 of queryRegistry(tKey) into tPath
    return replaceText(tPath,quote,"")
    break
  end switch
end stsPathToAcrobat

And you could just test to see if stsPathToAcrobat() returns empty or not.

HTH,

Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software
Web site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/
Email: kray at sonsothunder.com