Do you have an issue with a specific file(s)? : Yes
Can you reproduce using one of our samples or online demos? : Not yet
Are you using the WebViewer server? : No
Does the issue only happen on certain browsers? :Yes
Is your issue related to a front-end framework? : Yes
Is your issue related to annotations? : No
Please give a brief summary of your issue:
Sometimes the comparison does not work on a Mac
Please describe your issue and provide steps to reproduce it:
I am using Semantic Text Compare feature, but sometimes I cannot successfully extract differences from the second page onward of a PDF on a Mac. The conditions we have identified are as follows:
The PDF file has many pages and a large file size (30 pages, over 15MB)
The PDF is saved with web optimization (web fast view)
On Mac & Safari: Differences from the second page onward cannot be extracted
On Mac & Chrome: The change list differences varies with each reload
We cannot currently upload the files in question as they contain confidential information, but we have confirmed that this issue occurs with multiple files.
Do you have any knowledge about this issue?
Is there any prospect of a fix for this phenomenon?
Are there any workarounds or improvements we can apply on our side with code or other methods?
Please provide a link to a minimal sample where the issue is reproducible:
We currently do not have a sample to provide, but we are preparing one.
Hello, I’m AiRon, an automated tech support bot While you wait for one of our customer support representatives, I can help you with your question.
It seems you’re experiencing issues with the Semantic Text Compare feature, specifically on a Mac with large PDF files. This can sometimes be influenced by the browser’s handling of large files and the web optimization settings of the PDF.
Some things you can try:
Ensure the PDFs are not excessively optimized for web viewing, which might affect how content is loaded and compared.
Test the comparison functionality on other browsers or systems to determine if it’s specific to Mac or Safari/Chrome.
Consider using exclusion zones to ignore parts of the PDF that might cause issues, such as headers or footers.
Check if reducing the file size or the number of pages impacts the issue, as this might help isolate the problem.
Ensure your implementation follows the guidelines for semantic comparison to avoid common pitfalls.
Thank you, Jacob. Here is what we have been able to confirm so far.
How often is the frequency of the issue? Does it occur almost every time, or is it extremely rare?
After repeated checks, the issue does not necessarily occur every time. However, it is not extremely rare.
We have been able to create a file where similar phenomena can be reproduced. Upon verification: It occurs most often on Mac & Safari, Occasionally, albeit rarely, on Windows & Chrome.
We will share these files with you: webfastview.pdf, webfastview_diff.pdf
Additionally, with the sample files, the phenomenon is such that the “number of instances” changes with every reload, instead of consistently occurring from the second page onward.
In one or both of the two PDF files, the text is only partially retrieved, causing issues during the comparison process.
We would like to know if this is related to the network or if improvements can be made by changing how embedded text is retrieved from the PDF.
At the same time, we are eager to understand at which step this comparison feature retrieves the text to be compared.
Or could there be an issue with the information returned from the server? If so, is there a way to address or improve it?
Exact Mac Version and Browser versions tested
The phenomenon has been observed on macOS 15.0 and Safari 18.0.
The same phenomenon has also been confirmed from our customer’s devices, but their browser and OS versions are unknown.
Blockquote3. JavaScript console output showing all warnings and errors.
The following two warnings are displayed:
[Warning] Feature.MultiViewerMode is deprecated and will be removed in the next major release. Please use UI.enterMultiViewerMode and UI.exitMultiViewerMode instead. (webviewer-ui.min.js, line 22)
[Warning] There may be some degradation of performance. Your server has not been configured to serve .gz. and .br. files with the expected Content-Encoding. See https://docs.apryse.com/documentation/web/faq/content-encoding/ for instructions on how to resolve this. (PDFworker.js, line 38)
Network panel showing all failed network traffic
There are no items with Failed status.
We have attached the network HAR file (with domain information modified). Please refer to the attached file: sample.har.
The minimal sample when completed and/or all WebViewer-related code (you can find the samples here: https://dev.apryse.com/)
Please download the sample file:CodeSample_Compare.ts
Are you able to reproduce the issue on our latest release (Version 11.3)?
Currently, we are unable to upgrade the version on our development environment.
Instead, we have verified the behavior using the following link:
On Windows 11 & Chrome: The changes are correctly detected, but ChangeList displays as 0.
(However, since the issue’s occurrence is rare, it cannot be concluded that the problem “does not occur.”)
On Mac & Safari: The loading does not complete, so it is not possible to determine the behavior.
We were unable to reproduce the issue on our end. Please provide screenshots of what the viewer looks like when the issue occurs and/or a demo video highlighting the expected vs. actual behavior.
Best Regards,
Jacob Romano Carlsen
Web Development Support Engineer Apryse Software Inc.
The following video demonstrates the behavior on Windows Ă— Chrome:
Initially, the result shows 10 items. It seems that the comparison results are only displayed up to the page where the initial loading is completed. (This is problematic.)
Afterward, the page is reloaded twice.
First reload (starting at 0:23): The result still shows 10 items. (This is problematic.)
Second reload (starting at 0:52): The result shows 21 items. The comparison results are displayed up to the final page. This is the expected outcome. (No issue here.) Video Link - Windows Ă— Chrome
The following video demonstrates the behavior on Mac Ă— Safari:
The result shows 2 items. It seems that the comparison results are only displayed up to the page where the initial loading is completed. (This is problematic.) Video Link - Mac Ă— Safari
It appears that this issue tends to occur when the network speed is slow. However, considering that users may not always have control over their network environment, we would appreciate it if you could suggest any possible improvements.
Thank you for the details for reproduction and the sample video.
After some investigation on our end, we were unable to reproduce the issue. Several of our team members use Mac computers and they were not able to reproduce the issue on any browsers, even when throttling their network.
Its quite difficult to provide specific recommendations without being able to reproduce the issue on our end. If you are able to reproduce the issue on one of our sample demos, feel free to provide the modified minimal sample project and we can investigate further for more potential specific solutions. You can find the sample projects here: https://github.com/ApryseSDK/webviewer-samples
Here are some general recommendations that we can provide to improve performance in slower network environments:
Make sure you are on the latest version of WebViewer, as it will include any recent optimizations and bugfixes. We just released our new Version 11.4, you can find the changelog here: https://docs.apryse.com/web/guides/changelog
