pdf.js not working with Safari

Question

We're testing out pdf.js and while it seems like an awesome project we can't get it working in Safari.

(Tested on PDF.JS version = 0.8.229 (latest) / Safari 5.1.9 - 6.0.4 / Mac OSX 10.6.8 - 10.8.3)

EXAMPLE:

This is an example of the demo code served from our server with a sample PDF that works on Chrome/FFox but not Safari: http://test.appgrinders.com/pdf_js/test.html

Console output:

Warning: Setting up fake worker. 
Error: Invalid XRef stream (while reading XRef): 
Error: Invalid XRef stream pdf.js:850undefined 
Warning: Indexing all PDF objects 
Error: Invalid XRef stream (while reading XRef): 
Error: Invalid XRef stream pdf.js:850undefined

More tests:

The following is a list of sample PDFs we tested (They were all served from our server, and all worked in Chrome/FFox/Android). The only one that worked with Safari was the PDF file served from the pdf.js project itself:

FAILS IN SAFARI:
http://samplepdf.com/sample.pdf
http://forums.adobe.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/2041-102-1-2139/Sample.pdf
https://github.com/prawnpdf/prawn/raw/master/data/pdfs/form.pdf

WORKS IN SAFARI:
http://cdn.mozilla.net/pdfjs/helloworld.pdf
(NOTE: This is a sample PDF from the pdf.js project and the only one we ever got working)

---

We've submitted a bug report, but the developers do not seem to have an answer, so I'm hoping someone here might...

How can we get pdf.js working with Safari?

Answer 1

I've figured out how to get things working on Mac Safari (without necessarily understanding why)...

1. compatibility.js must be included.

2. PDFJS.workerSrc must be assigned.

   The demo code I had been testing (from the JS Bin demos here) does not do this, though some other online examples do (including the hello world example and the examples provided by @AndrewBenjamin – thanks). Other browsers don't seem to require this, but Safari won't work without it.

   <script type="text/javascript" src="compatibility.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="pdf.js"></script>
   
   <!-- NEED THIS for Safari Mac to render work -->
   <script type="text/javascript">
       // Specify the main script used to create a new PDF.JS web worker.  
       // In production, change this to point to the combined `pdf.js` file.  
       PDFJS.workerSrc = 'pdf.worker.js';  
   </script>
   

Again, can't explain why, but this is how we got it working for us.