Plugin issue after using SignPlugin and Reader-enabling

Question

Hi all,
I would like to ask for a help with plugin that we have developed for Adobe Reader.
We are running into an issue with the plug-in and I was hoping that you can help me out.  It looks like plug-in works perfectly in the Acrobat but we have an issue with getting it  to work with Reader as described below.  I would greatly appreciate your help.
We have a problem with plugin after signing it using RIKLA certificate provided by Adobe and Reader-enabling.
Our plugin has been developed to allow users to sign PDF XML data from Reader user interface using custom library (sign library) and msxml3.dll library ( to transform PDF form XML into custom XML format). Plugin target is Adobe Reader 9 and it has been tested using Adobe Acrobat 9 earlier. Recently we received RIKLA certification key and after we tried to sign plugin and use it in Reader we started to have problems.
Plug-in, compiled directly from source code and installed in Adobe Acrobat 9 is working correctly. We haven’t experienced any issues and everything seems to be working properly.
The same plug-in signed using SignPlugin tools from Acrobat SDK 9.1 (command SignPlugin -kp keypairFileName -cf Reader_Integrated_Key_FileName  MyPlugin.api) and RIKLA key is not working correctly in Adobe Reader 9.
The problem appears when plugin is trying to access external library msxml3.dll and execute createProcessor() function.  The same function work properly in Adobe Acrobat 9 before sing plug-in with RIKLA key.
Below there is fragment with code that doesn’t work in Adobe Reader after reader-enabling but works in Adobe Acrobat.
Plug-in crushes in line pProcessor = pTemplate->createProcessor();.
try{
  pProcessor = pTemplate->createProcessor();
} catch(_com_error &e) {
  printf("Error setting XSL style sheet : %s\n",
         (const char*)_bstr_t(e.Description()));
  AVAlertNote("Error setting XSL style sheet");
  AVAlertNote(e.Description());
  exit(-1);
Code that we use in catch() block lets us know that error source is “msxml3.dll” library.
As we have discovered problem occurs only after Reader-enabling .api plugin file. Clear compiled .api file works properly in Adobe Acrobat 9 without any problems.
We would like to know if you have experienced any similar issues? If yes, what have caused them?
Why same plugin is working in Acrobat 9 before signing and after signing using provided certificate it stops working?
Are there any restrictions of using external libraries in Reader that are not working there, and these restrictions are not obeyed in Acrobat?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi Irosent,
Is there a way that Acrobat and Reader differentiate between library initialization?
Would it be useful if I place any part of code or project configuration for you so maybe you will be able to help?
Libraries that we use (our own dll files) we place in windows/system32 folder (there also exists msxml3.dll file that we use).
Here are preprocessor definitions that we have defined:
_AFXDLL
_USERDLL
READER_PLUGIN
NDEBUG
WIN_PLATFORM
WIN32
_WINDOWS
WIN_ENV
ACRO_SDK_LEVEL=0x00090000
As for library msxml3.dll that we use in code we have:
#import <msxml3.dll>  named_guids
using namespace MSXML2;
  MSXML2::IXMLDOMDocumentPtr
          pXml(MSXML2::CLSID_DOMDocument);
  MSXML2::IXMLDOMDocumentPtr
          pXslt(CLSID_FreeThreadedDOMDocument);
  IXSLTemplatePtr pTemplate(CLSID_XSLTemplate);
  IXSLProcessorPtr pProcessor;
Later there is a part of code that I have posted in first post and where plugin crashes.
I would really appreciate your help.