shortcode with pdf file id

Hey @procarmanuals,

Thank you for your feedback.

I think this part is incorrect:

The plugin has no integration with wordpress media library!

We do have an integration with it, because we even convert the dropped PDF file into a shortcode with a proper URL. We just need to support a ton of cases when PDF is stored elsewhere and the only thing that WP is aware of – is the PDF URL. A ton of users are storing PDFs outside of WordPress.

We won’t be able to modify this behavior ever, unfortunately. Technically, PDF ID is used internally only to track PDF views/downloads, but that’s applicable to the paid version of the plugin only.

I studied the code and realised that the PDF ID is used in the url retrieval. I think it is technically possible to implement:

• pdf id – WP
• url – external resources

It will require code modification (2-3 places) and everything will work as before.

Also found some code for tracking. Why do you need it?
Does the paid version have counters that count file views and downloads? If it is an external resource, how is the counting done?

The problem is that URL can be internal resource too. But I get your point.

I plan to release a new version of the plugin this week, and the changes you are proposing will definitely not land in this new version. But I will think about it – maybe I will introduce a new shortcode/block attribute called pdf-id which will have higher priority than the current url.

The usage tracking is disabled by default, obviously. You can read more about it in this doc article. We use this information to understand what and how exactly to improve PDF Embedder.

Does the paid version have counters that count file views and downloads?

Yes. We count the views/downloads in the Premium version only, and only after the actual PDF file has been rendered on a page inside the iframe. We use PDF ID to count, as we store counters as post_meta for attachments. PDF id means that the file is stored through the WP Media Library. The URL itself may point even to Amazon S3, no problem with that, but the file URL should be registered properly inside the WP database.

I will describe the usefulness of pdf-id:
When there is a need to move files to S3 storage plugins like Leopard – WordPress Offload Media, WP Offload Media, replace the url to the storage cdn which can be obtained through the id of the file in WP media library.

If the file address was in the media library and the plugin has integration, there is no need to manually update all the file paths.

No other plugin that provides the ability to display pdf’s has this integration. It usually comes down to inserting a shortcode and parameters.

I understand your point.

We will see what we can do for one of the future plugin versions.