Android webView wont load pdf

Question

I am working on an app which I will use at school. This app is for reading my homework and such. All this information is stored in PDF file on my schools server, and is accessible by all students. My app is webview based. Whenever I try to load the PDF it will not work. Here is the Android code:

package com.example.emneplanappen;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.annotation.SuppressLint;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.webkit.WebSettings;
import android.webkit.WebView;
import android.webkit.WebViewClient;

@SuppressLint("SetJavaScriptEnabled")
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    WebView wv = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView);
    wv.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient());
    wv.loadUrl("https://srcurl.dummy/");
    WebSettings webSettings = wv.getSettings();
    webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
}

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
    return true;
}

}

Loading HTML pages with PDF files embedded or as a whole does not render PDFs.

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

There is no way in Android to view PDFs in Webviews like there is for UIWebViews on iOS.

Here are your alternatives:

Use a third-party library
There are some free libraries, but most are GPL - so not for use in closed-source apps)
If you don't have to keep your app closed source, I'd recommend e.g. this library: https://github.com/JoanZapata/android-pdfview
Use Google Docs like in this question.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 28 '14 at 19:28

0

Try to use Google Docs Viewer , your link will be like that https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=http://tromstun.tromsoskolen.no/files/2013/10/emneplanhefte_9e_uke_40_42.pdf

<button onClick="nav();"     href="https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url="+ Any pdf url here>

answered Jan 28 '14 at 19:28

mohammed momn

3,230
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almost worked. the href part did not work so i changed the nav code instead. thanks for the answer – Jan 28 '14 at 19:36

Android webView wont load pdf

2 Answers2