Displaying PDF file from an EMBED HTML tag fails on Android and iOS based smart phones

Question

I am not able to show the PDF Help file from my web app to the following smart phones: Android - it just shows an Open button and clicking on does nothing iOS (iPad or iPhone) - only show the first page of the pdf.

It works fine from Windows 10. Is there something I am overlooking?

Here is the code:

   <?php

        define('ROOT_PATH',dirname(dirname(__FILE__)));

        define('URL_PATH',"/CMS_Public_2/");


            $help_file="Documentation/CMS_Documentation.pdf";

            $documentation_file_path= URL_PATH.$help_file;


         
   echo <<<_END

       <html>
            <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

        </html>

             <embed src=$documentation_file_path type="application/pdf" width="100%" height="900px" />
    _END;
  ?>

What do you mean a WebView can not display a pdf document? Is this related to the iOS or Android OS on smart phones? What is the recommended solution? — Jack Stein, Oct 21 '21 at 16:34
If your Android app does not use a WebView to display the php output then tell what you mean with 'HTML tags fails on Android. I think that Android will not do that but one or other app. Which app on Android? Who displays or should display? — blackapps, Oct 21 '21 at 16:45
I use Google Chrome on both the Android and the iOS devices. — Jack Stein, Oct 21 '21 at 17:01
But than your question has not much to do with programming Android apps. You should consult Google instead. — blackapps, Oct 21 '21 at 17:13
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/238412/discussion-between-jack-stein-and-blackapps). — Jack Stein, Oct 21 '21 at 17:15
BY the way - I do not think it is related to Google, the problem shows up with Safari on the iOS device. I am not programming these devices, I am trying to run a web app on these devices. — Jack Stein, Oct 21 '21 at 17:36

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 21 '21 at 20:51

After a bit of searching I found the following post How To Embed Google Drive Document (PDF) In Blogger Post? and I tried a test of the proposed solution that addresses all the issues I had on iPad, iPhone and Android devices when running the same web application that runs on Windows and shows the PDF Help File.

Displaying PDF file from an EMBED HTML tag fails on Android and iOS based smart phones

1 Answers1