PDF in new Browser window

[James Frankman]

I am trying to stream a PDF to a new browser window. I can get this to work, but the strange thing that happens is that a new browser window gets opened, but instead of the PDF geting displayed inside the browser window, it is opened separately by Adobe Acrobat. So, the user is forced to close two windows, the Adobe Acrobat window and the blank Browser window. I have gone over my code but have never seen any behavior quite like this. Does anyone know what will cause a new browser window to open up, but still open Adobe Acrobat outside of the browser? Any thoughts on why this is happening?

My code is as follows:

JBoss Seam Link:

<s:link id="link1"
            action="#{reportDocumentBean.viewPhysicalDamagePDF}" target="_blank">
            <h:outputText value="Print" />
        </s:link>

here is the heart of the Print Report Bean's method:

HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse) faces
.getExternalContext().getResponse();
response.setContentType("application/pdf");
response.setContentLength(pdf.length);
response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment;filename=\""
+ reportName+"crystalreport.pdf" + "\"");
 
ServletOutputStream out;
out = response.getOutputStream();
out.write(pdf);
out.flush(); //new
 
out.close();
bais.close();
reportClientDocument.close();
faces.responseComplete(); //new
 
    

Here is the entire method incase you need to see the context of the snippet above.

  
private void viewPDF(String reportName, String fullClassName, String tableAlias, String subreportTableAlias, List dataSet)
{
FacesContext faces = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();

try {
ReportClientDocument reportClientDocument = new ReportClientDocument();
String report = reportName;
//String report = "RDC_To_CR.Net.rpt";
reportClientDocument.open(report, 0);
 

List<CrystalDTO> crystalTranferObjects = new ArrayList<CrystalDTO>();

//fill dto 
CrystalDTO crystalDTO1 = new CrystalDTO(dataSet,
fullClassName,
tableAlias, subreportTableAlias);
crystalTranferObjects.add(crystalDTO1);



Iterator crystalDTOIterator= crystalTranferObjects.iterator();
while(crystalDTOIterator.hasNext())
 {
 CrystalDTO dto=(CrystalDTO)crystalDTOIterator.next();

ReportCreator.passPOJO(reportClientDocument, dto.getDataSet(), dto.getClassName(), dto.getTableAlias(), dto.getSubreportName());
 }

ByteArrayInputStream bais;
bais = (ByteArrayInputStream) reportClientDocument
.getPrintOutputController().export(ReportExportFormat.PDF);
byte[] pdf = new byte[bais.available()];
bais.read(pdf, 0, bais.available());
 
HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse) faces
.getExternalContext().getResponse();
response.setContentType("application/pdf");
response.setContentLength(pdf.length);
response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment;filename=\""
+ reportName+"crystalreport.pdf" + "\"");
ServletOutputStream out;
out = response.getOutputStream();
out.write(pdf);
out.flush(); //new
 
out.close();
bais.close();
reportClientDocument.close();
faces.responseComplete(); //new

}
 
catch (ReportSDKException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}  catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
faces.responseComplete();
}
 
  

[Tim Holloway]

This depends somewhat on what browser brand and version the user has. Originally, I believe there was an option you could set that indicated whether the PDF (or a Word document, etc.) would open in a browser window or open in a standalone app window. However Eolas won a $500 million lawsuit against Microsoft while required Microsoft to switch off some of that functionality in IE.

In short, I'm not sure it's possible for you to always get the document to come up in a browser window. It never was, but when the patent lawyers got involved that made the issue even murkier.

If my memory is accurate, the control of in-browser ("inline") versus independent window output is part of the output headers, but, as I said, the browser may not always honor it.

Update: I think that it's the Content-Disposition header that you want to look at, now that I think of it.
[ August 03, 2007: Message edited by: Tim Holloway ]