We're attempting to generate documents (PDFs) via Visualforce. Everything is generating exactly as expected except for images. Our images are being pulled from an external server and there's a redirect involved. Salesforce doesn't seem to like this re-direct.

Once PDF generation is initiated, linked-to images are pulled in via a URL stored in a text field. For security reasons, the URL stored in the Record's text field is re-directed to a secure server where the image files are actually stored. This re-direct is keeping images from being shown inthe PDFs we generate. A "Broken Link" icon shows where images should be.

This issue doesn't exist until PDFs are generated. When viewing the documents as VF pages, the images are rendered using the re-directed URLs without issue.

Can anyone offer insight as to why the re-direct is problematic or how to get around this issue?

Thanks,
Ben

We are using SDocs with images hosted in Box due to image size constraints.  We are having an issue where the PDF renders VERY quickly, however the images which are hosted on Box do not have time to render before the PDF creation is complete.  Is there a way to slow down the PDF creation process to ensure that the images are rendered prior to the PDF finalization?

This was working for about 2 months, however we're back to this issue after Summer '14 release.  We did find a whitelist issue that was resolved, so the images are not broken, however they also do not show up.

We've updated to SDocs Winter '15 in our sandbox (we do not have a Salesforce Winter '15 instance this time), however that does not solve the issue.  In addition, we're using direct links (non-redirected) to ensure that the images are loaded as quickly as possible.