Spring controller displays PDF as bytes in the browser

Question

I want to display a PDF in the browser. I am using below code to do it.

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/test.pdf")
public class DisplayPDF {

    @RequestMapping(method = {RequestMethod.GET})
    @ResponseBody
    public ResponseEntity<byte[]> start() throws Exception {
        FileInputStream fi = new FileInputStream(new File("/tmp/test.pdf"));
        ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

        int c;
        while ((c = fi.read()) != -1) {
            baos.write(c);
        }

        fi.close();
        byte[] pdf = baos.toByteArray();
        baos.close();

        HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();

      headers.setContentLength(pdf.length);
      headers.setContentType(MediaType.parseMediaType("application/pdf"));
        headers.set("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=test.pdf");
        headers.setCacheControl("must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
        ResponseEntity<byte[]> responseE = new     ResponseEntity<byte[]>(pdf, headers, HttpStatus.OK);
        return responseE;
    }

I found that, even after setting the header content-type to application/pdf in the above code, my live http headers shows the content as text/html

Output is displayed in the browser as below:

But the below code displays the PDF in the browser.

@RequestMapping(method = {RequestMethod.GET})
public ResponseEntity<byte[]> start() throws Exception {
    FileInputStream fi = new FileInputStream(new File("/tmp/test.pdf"));
    ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

    int c;
    while ((c = fi.read()) != -1) {
        baos.write(c);
    }

    fi.close();
    byte[] pdf = baos.toByteArray();
    baos.close();

    response.setHeader("Expires", "0");
    response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
    response.setHeader("Pragma", "public");

    response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=sureshbabu.pdf");
    response.setContentType("application/pdf");
    response.setContentLength(pdf.length);
    response.getOutputStream().write(pdf);
    response.getOutputStream().flush();

    return null;
}

What is the difference between these two codes?

What about remove ResponseBody and add produces = "application/pdf" to your RequestMapping? — erhun, Sep 23 '15 at 06:52
@erhun I tried removing ResponseBody but it did not work. I use spring 3.0 which does not have produces attribute in RequestMapping. — jaghan, Sep 23 '15 at 06:55

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 23 '15 at 07:21

0

The same code is working for me. Tested it if different browsers.

Do you have any filters in implementation which might be playing with response headers. Can you also share the log file.

answered Sep 23 '15 at 07:21

Neeraj Gupta

173
2
14

I don't have any filters and special configurations. I tested it on both Firefox and Chrome browsers and it did not work. – jaghan Sep 23 '15 at 07:37

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '15 at 08:20

0

Add PDF as a mime type to your server.
Instead of inline, try attachment.
I am not familiar with the API, but wouldn't this work: headers.setContentType("application/pdf");

answered Sep 29 '15 at 08:20

gn1

526
2
5

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 18 '17 at 16:16

Maybe it´s too late, but I´m going to give you my idea because I was facing with a similar problem days ago:

In your client side (In my case a JavaScript app I have something like this)

var data = this.toBinaryString(response.responseText);
// Here is the pdf content
data = "data:application/pdf;base64,"+btoa(data);


// Transforming binary data to string
toBinaryString: function(data) {
    var ret = [];
    var len = data.length;
    var byte;
    for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        byte=( data.charCodeAt(i) & 0xFF )>>> 0;
        ret.push(String.fromCharCode(byte) );
    }
    return ret.join('');
},

This workaround works for me and I hope that this code could help you.

Bye!

Spring controller displays PDF as bytes in the browser

3 Answers3