Grails - Displaying PDF in browser rather than downloading

Question

In my Grails applications, I have a controller function to return a PDF file.

When I make a call to the URL (to return the file), It downloads the file, rather than displaying the PDF file in the browser.

When I open other pdf files from other websites, it displays in browser.. so I think it has something to do with my returned response?

def separator = grailsApplication.config.project.separator.flag
def path = grailsApplication.config.project.images.path+"public/"+user.id+"/"
render(contentType: "multipart/form-data", file: new File(path+note.preview), fileName: note.preview)

Do I need to change the contentType? (I kind of tried to make it /application/pdf but didnt work?..still downloads.

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

4

Try setting content-disposition to inline. Content-Type tells the browser what type of content it is but the disposition tells the browser on how to handle it.

More information in this answer

edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

Community

1
1

answered Sep 11 '14 at 12:52

Praba

1,373
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30

how do i set the content disposition.. when I try response.setHeader and then call render after, i think it overrides it? – Tyler Evans Sep 11 '14 at 13:14
1

Can you directly write to the outputstream? Something like: `response.outputStream << your_file response.outputStream.flush()` – Praba Sep 11 '14 at 13:19
I've tried the following with no luck ---> response.setHeader "Content-disposition", "inline; filename="+note.preview response.contentType = 'application/pdf' response.outputStream << new File(path+note.preview) response.outputStream.flush() – Tyler Evans Sep 11 '14 at 13:30
I get "Failed to load document" so it seems its fetching the file correctly.. but just can't display it properly – Tyler Evans Sep 11 '14 at 13:34
You sure about the content of the PDF file? It opens in Adobe reader when it's sent as an attachment? May be try a different browser? – Praba Sep 11 '14 at 13:35
I found if I make it "attachment" instead of "inline"... it downloads the attachment.. but when i try open that up.. it says its corrupt.. so it must be the way im returning the output? – Tyler Evans Sep 11 '14 at 13:37
If the answer helped you, please mark it as accepted. Also, what did you do to fix the 'Failed to load' error? can you update your question with that? – Praba Sep 11 '14 at 13:41

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 11 '14 at 13:40

There was something getting corrupt by returning a "File" object rather than a byte[] object.

So I added the following lines.

byte[] DocContent = null;
DocContent = getFileBytes(path+note.preview);

response.setHeader "Content-disposition", "inline; filename="+note.preview+""
response.contentType = 'application/pdf'
response.outputStream << DocContent
response.outputStream.flush()


public static byte[] getFileBytes(String fileName) throws IOException
{
    ByteArrayOutputStream ous = null;
    InputStream ios = null;
    try
    {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
        ous = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        ios = new FileInputStream(new File(fileName));
        int read = 0;
        while ((read = ios.read(buffer)) != -1)
            ous.write(buffer, 0, read);
    }
    finally
    {
        try
        {
            if (ous != null)
                ous.close();
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            // swallow, since not that important
        }
        try
        {
            if (ios != null)
                ios.close();
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            // swallow, since not that important
        }
    }
    return ous.toByteArray();
}

Grails - Displaying PDF in browser rather than downloading

2 Answers2