10

I am trying to download a file from a website using flutter, I first used evaluateJavaScript and changed some values before clicking a generate button which is supposed to download an appropriate pdf file to the phone.

Here is my code:

InAppWebView(
        initialUrl: '...',
        initialOptions: InAppWebViewGroupOptions(
          crossPlatform: InAppWebViewOptions(
              debuggingEnabled: true,
              useOnDownloadStart: true,
              javaScriptEnabled: true,
          ),
        ),
        //javascriptMode: JavascriptMode.unrestricted,
        onWebViewCreated: (InAppWebViewController webViewController) {
          _controller = webViewController;
          },
          onLoadStop: (_controller ,url) async {
          await _loadData();

          _controller.evaluateJavascript(source:
"console.log(document.getElementById('field-lastname').value = '${data[Field.name]}' );"
+"console.log(document.getElementById('generate-btn').click());"

           );
          },

          onDownloadStart:(_controller,url) async{
            print("onDownloadStart $url");
            final taskId = await FlutterDownloader.enqueue(
                url: url,
                savedDir: (await getExternalStorageDirectory()).path,
            showNotification: true, // show download progress in status bar (for Android)
            openFileFromNotification: true,);
          },

      ),

The URL printed is like this one

onDownloadStart blob:https://example.com/a2a5316c-9290-4da7-8a2a-9f899861046a

And here is the console:
And here is the console

Can someone help me?

Jason Aller
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Quantum Martin
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2 Answers2

16

Downloading file with blob url is tricky and not supported out of the box in the current state of webviews in Flutter. There are 3 popular plugins

There is a note at README in community repository

We are working closely with the Flutter Team to integrate all the Community Plugin features in the Official WebView Plugin. We will try our best to resolve PRs and Bugfixes, but our priority right now is to merge our two code-bases. Once the merge is complete we will deprecate the Community Plugin in favor of the Official one

There is a lot of work yet to build fully working and bugfree webview. Currently for more challenging tasks like this mentioned here, the best attempt is to use flutter_inappwebview which is very popular and used by a lot people with success. There is issue associated with blob files. As we can see in your snippet you already used this plugin. To download blob file you can try convert blob:url to base64 like in this case Download Blob file from Website inside Android WebViewClient

Possible workaround

To your webview (_controller) add JavaScriptHandler. I would assume onWebViewCreated might be ok.

        controller.addJavaScriptHandler(
          handlerName: _webViewHandlerName,
          callback: (data) async {
            if (data.isNotEmpty) {
              final String receivedFileInBase64 = data[0];
              final String receivedMimeType = data[1];

              // NOTE: create a method that will handle your extensions
              final String yourExtension =
                  _mapMimeTypeToYourExtension(receivedMimeType); // 'pdf'

              _createFileFromBase64(
                  receivedFileInBase64, 'YourFileName', yourExtension);
            }
          },
        );

JavaScript handler will receive two values stored in array. First argument is file encoded in base64 and second one is mimeType e.g. application/pdf. Having information about mimeType allows us to get information about extension which should be used to save file with. They can be easly mapped application/pdf => 'pdf' etc.

  _createFileFromBase64(String base64content, String fileName, String yourExtension) async {
    var bytes = base64Decode(base64content.replaceAll('\n', ''));
    final output = await getExternalStorageDirectory();
    final file = File("${output.path}/$fileName.$yourExtension");
    await file.writeAsBytes(bytes.buffer.asUint8List());
    print("${output.path}/${fileName}.$yourExtension");
    await OpenFile.open("${output.path}/$fileName.$yourExtension");
    setState(() {});
  }

Finally where blob url can be handled the JavaScript is invoked.

       onDownloadStart: (controller, url) async {
        print("onDownloadStart $url");
        var jsContent = await rootBundle.loadString("assets/js/base64.js");
        await controller.evaluateJavascript(
            source: jsContent.replaceAll("blobUrlPlaceholder", url));
      },

Javascript (I prefer to load it as an asset base64.js, better than hardcoded in dart code) It opens blob url and pass to encodedBase64 data and mimeType as arguments to our handler blobToBase64Handler in dart.

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
var blobUrl = "blobUrlPlaceholder";
console.log(blobUrl);
xhr.open('GET', blobUrl, true);
xhr.responseType = 'blob';
xhr.onload = function(e) {
  if (this.status == 200) {
    var blob = this.response;
    var reader = new FileReader();
    reader.readAsDataURL(blob);
    reader.onloadend = function() {
      var base64data = reader.result;
      var base64ContentArray = base64data.split(",")     ;
      var mimeType = base64ContentArray[0].match(/[^:\s*]\w+\/[\w-+\d.]+(?=[;| ])/)[0];
      var decodedFile = base64ContentArray[1];
      console.log(mimeType);
      window.flutter_inappwebview.callHandler('blobToBase64Handler', decodedFile, mimeType);
    };
  };
};
xhr.send();

source: Download Blob file from Website inside Android WebViewClient

source: How to decode base64 PDF string in Flutter?

It's not clean and looks hacky but could not find better and easier

wpazio
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  • Thank you for your very complete answer ! I tried your proposition, but it doesn't not download the file, there is no notification or anything... Did I miss something ? – Quantum Martin Nov 19 '20 at 17:11
  • As you can see I do not use `FlutterDownloader` in `onDownloadStart`. We save pdf directly as a file. File is saved in `getExternalStorageDirectory()` folder. Thats why there is no notification. There is problem with `java.lang.IllegalStateException: Data cannot occupy more than 10240 bytes when serialized` when downloader manager is used. To inform user that file is downloaded you can show toast. Debug your logs to see where exactly the file is saved. – wpazio Nov 19 '20 at 17:35
  • My bad, I moved my base64.js file and forgot about it in my code ! It is working and I can finaly see my pdf !!! I am so happy right now, thank you very much for your help ! Your answer is extremely complete and educative, thank you so much ! – Quantum Martin Nov 19 '20 at 17:45
  • this method is working on my PocoF1 mobile but it doesn't works in Redmi go mobile, may i know what will be the reason ??? – Abilash S Jan 07 '21 at 04:53
  • @wpazio is this method also available for spreadsheet like .xls or .xlsx? – Nazarudin Apr 16 '21 at 12:55
  • @Nazar yes its possible to download other type of files aswell. The blob gives us information about size and mimeType. In my answer the code is hardcoded for 'application/pdf', but I also use more flexible solution with passing the mimeType to the download function and save file with extension that depends on mimeType from blob. In your case it would be something like this 'application/vnd.ms-excel'. I will update my answer to be more generic in spare time. – wpazio Apr 16 '21 at 13:25
  • @wpazio I've tried to content type form application/pdf to application/vnd.ms-excel and change file type from .pdf to .xls but I got this error `[ERROR:flutter/lib/ui/ui_dart_state.cc(186)] Unhandled Exception: FormatException: Invalid character (at character 23) formats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet;base64,UEsDBAoAAAAAAPJukFIAAAAAA...` – Nazarudin Apr 16 '21 at 13:57
  • @wpazio maybe you can take a look at my question at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67125101/flutter-inappwebview-download-file-from-datatable-export so I can accept your answer – Nazarudin Apr 16 '21 at 13:59
  • @Nazar I will add clean solution soon, for this moment I updated first snippet for you. You can try it. It's not based on length anymore just split data and take what is needed. – wpazio Apr 16 '21 at 14:11
  • @wpazio okay, I will wait for it. Thank you in advance. – Nazarudin Apr 16 '21 at 14:14
  • @wpazio I got an error at _webViewHandlerName and _mapMimeTypeToYourExtension, it said `the method isn't defined`. maybe you forgot to add some code? – Nazarudin Apr 17 '21 at 10:18
  • @Nazar I left the method `_mapMimeTypeToYourExtension` to write on your own. The method takes String mimeType as a argument and should return String with extension that file should be saved with – wpazio Apr 17 '21 at 10:22
  • it's not working on iOS. the XMLHttpRequest seems didn't work his job. do you have any idea why? – axunic Jul 10 '21 at 22:22
  • With the new iOS version there is another way to achieve blob download, I will try to update my answer in spare time – wpazio Jul 11 '21 at 10:31
  • @axumnemonic You can try my solution below,and it works for both Android and iOS. – PageGuo Sep 23 '21 at 10:27
  • why mime type always return application/pdf? @wpazio – fajar ainul Jul 27 '23 at 08:59
3

I wrote a solution for both Android and iOS. which may support any type of files.

  1. Build a simple backend using Fluter with Jaguar or other backend framework
  2. Convert the blob as formData and post it to Flutter.

The full code: https://github.com/guoguoguilai/flutter-webview-blob-download

PageGuo
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