Opening PDF String in new window with javascript

Question

I have a formatted PDF string that looks like

%PDF-1.73 0 obj<<< /Type /Group /S /Transparency /CS /DeviceRGB >> /Resources 2 0 R/Contents 4 0 R>> endobj4 0 obj<> streamx��R=o�0��+��=|vL�R���l�-��ځ,���Ge�JK����{���Y5�����Z˯k�vf�a��`G֢ۢ��Asf�z�ͼ��`%��aI#�!;�t���GD?!���<�����B�b��

...

00000 n 0000000703 00000 n 0000000820 00000 n 0000000926 00000 n 0000001206 00000 n 0000001649 00000 n trailer << /Size 11 /Root 10 0 R /Info 9 0 R >>startxref2015%%EOF

I am trying to open up this string in a new window as a PDF file. Whenever I use window.open() and write the string to the new tab it thinks that the text should be the contents of an HTML document. I want it to recognize that this is a PDF file.

Any help is much appreciated

Answer 1

Just for information, the below

window.open("data:application/pdf," + encodeURI(pdfString)); 

does not work anymore in Chrome. Yesterday, I came across with the same issue and tried this solution, but did not work (it is 'Not allowed to navigate top frame to data URL'). You cannot open the data URL directly in a new window anymore. But, you can wrap it in iframe and make it open in a new window like below. =)

let pdfWindow = window.open("")
pdfWindow.document.write(
    "<iframe width='100%' height='100%' src='data:application/pdf;base64, " +
    encodeURI(yourDocumentBase64VarHere) + "'></iframe>"
)

Answer 2

var byteCharacters = atob(response.data);
var byteNumbers = new Array(byteCharacters.length);
for (var i = 0; i < byteCharacters.length; i++) {
  byteNumbers[i] = byteCharacters.charCodeAt(i);
}
var byteArray = new Uint8Array(byteNumbers);
var file = new Blob([byteArray], { type: 'application/pdf;base64' });
var fileURL = URL.createObjectURL(file);
window.open(fileURL);

You return a base64 string from the API or another source. You can also download it.

Answer 3

You might want to explore using the data URI. It would look something like.

window.open("data:application/pdf," + escape(pdfString));

I wasn't immediately able to get this to work, possible because formating of the binary string provided. I also usually use base64 encoded data when using the data URI. If you are able to pass the content from the backend encoded you can use..

window.open("data:application/pdf;base64, " + base64EncodedPDF);

Hopefully this is the right direction for what you need. Also note this will not work at all in IE6/7 because they do not support Data URIs.

Answer 4

This one worked for me.

window.open("data:application/octet-stream;charset=utf-16le;base64,"+data64);

This one worked too

 let a = document.createElement("a");
 a.href = "data:application/octet-stream;base64,"+data64;
 a.download = "documentName.pdf"
 a.click();

Answer 5

window.open("data:application/pdf," + escape(pdfString)); 

The above one pasting the encoded content in URL. That makes restriction of the content length in URL and hence PDF file loading failed (because of incomplete content).

Answer 6

I realize this is a pretty old question, but I had the same thing come up today and came up with the following solution:

doSomethingToRequestData().then(function(downloadedFile) {
  // create a download anchor tag
  var downloadLink      = document.createElement('a');
  downloadLink.target   = '_blank';
  downloadLink.download = 'name_to_give_saved_file.pdf';

  // convert downloaded data to a Blob
  var blob = new Blob([downloadedFile.data], { type: 'application/pdf' });

  // create an object URL from the Blob
  var URL = window.URL || window.webkitURL;
  var downloadUrl = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

  // set object URL as the anchor's href
  downloadLink.href = downloadUrl;

  // append the anchor to document body
  document.body.appendChild(downloadLink);

  // fire a click event on the anchor
  downloadLink.click();

  // cleanup: remove element and revoke object URL
  document.body.removeChild(downloadLink);
  URL.revokeObjectURL(downloadUrl);
});

Answer 7

An updated version of answer by @Noby Fujioka:

function showPdfInNewTab(base64Data, fileName) {  
  let pdfWindow = window.open("");
  pdfWindow.document.write("<html<head><title>"+fileName+"</title><style>body{margin: 0px;}iframe{border-width: 0px;}</style></head>");
  pdfWindow.document.write("<body><embed width='100%' height='100%' src='data:application/pdf;base64, " + encodeURI(base64Data)+"#toolbar=0&navpanes=0&scrollbar=0'></embed></body></html>");
}

Answer 8

I just want to add with @Noby Fujioka's response, Edge will not support following

window.open("data:application/pdf," + encodeURI(pdfString));

For Edge we need to convert it to blob and this is something like following

//If Browser is Edge
            if (window.navigator && window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
                var byteCharacters = atob(<Your_base64_Report Data>);
                var byteNumbers = new Array(byteCharacters.length);
                for (var i = 0; i < byteCharacters.length; i++) {
                    byteNumbers[i] = byteCharacters.charCodeAt(i);
                }
                var byteArray = new Uint8Array(byteNumbers);
                var blob = new Blob([byteArray], {
                    type: 'application/pdf'
                });
                window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blob, "myreport.pdf");
            } else {
                var pdfWindow = window.open("", '_blank');
                pdfWindow.document.write("<iframe width='100%' style='margin: -8px;border: none;' height='100%' src='data:application/pdf;base64, " + encodeURI(<Your_base64_Report Data>) + "'></iframe>");
            }

Answer 9

Based off other old answers:

escape() function is now deprecated,

Use encodeURI() or encodeURIComponent() instead.

Example that worked in my situation:

window.open("data:application/pdf," + encodeURI(pdfString)); 

Happy Coding!

Answer 10

I had this problem working with a FedEx shipment request. I perform the request with AJAX. The response includes tracking #, cost, as well as pdf string containing the shipping label.

Here's what I did:

Add a form:

<form id='getlabel' name='getlabel' action='getlabel.php' method='post' target='_blank'>
<input type='hidden' id='pdf' name='pdf'>
</form>

Use javascript to populate the hidden field's value with the pdf string and post the form.

Where getlabel.php:

<?
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Length: '.strlen($_POST["pdf"]));
header('Content-Disposition: inline;');
header('Cache-Control: private, max-age=0, must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');
print $_POST["pdf"];
?>

Answer 11

//for pdf view

let pdfWindow = window.open("");
pdfWindow.document.write("<iframe width='100%' height='100%' src='data:application/pdf;base64," + data.data +"'></iframe>");

Answer 12

I know this is too late to answer this but I just got stuck in 'opening pdf in new page on clicking the name of pdfFile' and this worked for me:

Js-

fileName = '';
    fileUrl = '';

    handleFileUpload(event) {
        const file = event.target.files[0];
        this.fileName = file.name;
        this.fileUrl = URL.createObjectURL(file);
    }

Html-

<div class="slds-form-element">
        <lightning-input
            type="file"
            label="Upload PDF File"
            onchange={handleFileUpload}>
        </lightning-input>
    </div>
    <div class="slds-form-element">
        <a href={fileUrl}  target="_blank">{fileName}</a>
    </div>

Answer 13

In my case, I was receiving a pdf string from the backend and I had to set the responseType in Axios

{
    responseType: 'blob',
} 

and then like this, you can open a pdf file in a new tab

const file = new Blob([file], { type: 'application/pdf' });
const url = URL.createObjectURL(file);
window.open(url, '_blank');

Answer 14

One suggestion is that use a pdf library like PDFJS.

Yo have to append, the following "data:application/pdf;base64" + your pdf String, and set the src of your element to that.

Try with this example:

var pdfsrc = "data:application/pdf;base64" + "67987yiujkhkyktgiyuyhjhgkhgyi...n"

<pdf-element id="pdfOpen" elevation="5" downloadable src="pdfsrc" ></pdf-element>

Hope it helps :)

Answer 15

Just encode your formatted PDF string in base 64. Then you should do:

$pdf = 'data:application/pdf;base64,'.$base64EncodedString;

return this to javascript and open in a new window:

window.open(return);

Answer 16

for the latest Chrome version, this works for me :

var win = window.open("", "Title", "toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=780,height=200,top="+(screen.height-400)+",left="+(screen.width-840));
win.document.body.innerHTML = 'iframe width="100%" height="100%" src="data:application/pdf;base64,"+base64+"></iframe>';

Thanks

Answer 17

use function "printPreview(binaryPDFData)" to get print preview dialog of binary pdf data.

printPreview = (data, type = 'application/pdf') => {
    let blob = null;
    blob = this.b64toBlob(data, type);
    const blobURL = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
    const theWindow = window.open(blobURL);
    const theDoc = theWindow.document;
    const theScript = document.createElement('script');
    function injectThis() {
        window.print();
    }
    theScript.innerHTML = `window.onload = ${injectThis.toString()};`;
    theDoc.body.appendChild(theScript);
};

b64toBlob = (content, contentType) => {
    contentType = contentType || '';
    const sliceSize = 512;
     // method which converts base64 to binary
    const byteCharacters = window.atob(content); 

    const byteArrays = [];
    for (let offset = 0; offset < byteCharacters.length; offset += sliceSize) {
        const slice = byteCharacters.slice(offset, offset + sliceSize);
        const byteNumbers = new Array(slice.length);
        for (let i = 0; i < slice.length; i++) {
            byteNumbers[i] = slice.charCodeAt(i);
        }
        const byteArray = new Uint8Array(byteNumbers);
        byteArrays.push(byteArray);
    }
    const blob = new Blob(byteArrays, {
        type: contentType
    }); // statement which creates the blob
    return blob;
};