My application is in JSP/Struts and running on WebSphere. I don't have access to the server /really/ so I'm trying to do all this from within the app itself (Struts actions & config, JSP, etc).
I have a page that displays links for PDF documents that the user might want to look at. When they click on the link, it is forwarded to the 'document view' STRUTS action which performs the work to retrieve the PDF from the back-end system and then displays the PDF in the browser window. This all works fine.
The users have asked to have the file name of the document be customized for each document when they go to File->Save As... but right now the browser wants to try to name the document after the name of my Struts action. Example: "documentView.pdf"
I have the filename I want to use forwarded to the STRUTS action and I tried using the "Content-Disposition" header to set this, but haven't been able to get it to work. Actually it works great if I use "attachment; filename="myfilename" " but then it FORCES the "Save As..." dialog straight away, which I don't want either.
I want to be able to look at the PDF inline in the browser window and save it with a custom filename if I so choose.
I have read that this might be possible to do with URL rewriting but I'm having trouble sorting out how this technique might work.
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Change the "attachment" part of the Content-Disposition to "inline".
Browser support for Content-Disposition is flaky.
Before it was supported, you used to be able to get the browser to do the right thing by putting a superfluous key/value at the end of the URL. Like:
http://example.com/getPDF?id=123213&filename=mydoc.pdf
Some browsers picked up the last bit of the URL as the filename. Not sure if that still works.
Related
I have an Access database that uses VBA code to generate a GPX map file. That works fine. I then want the contents of the GPX file to be displayed on a website, https://mapy.cz
The method that the site authors intend is for users to open the site, then manually drag and drop GPX files onto the site, at which point the contents are read in and displayed by the website. This also works fine.
What I want to do is NOT require my database user to open a browser, locate the file and drag it onto the browser by hand. I want my VBA code to not only create this GPX file, but also open the user's default browser, direct it to this mapping site (all this also works okay), but then SIMULATE or FORCE the drag and drop action FROM MY VBA CODE. That is the part that on which I'm floundering. I've looked up things like using VBA's IE.Document object, and it seems to me that it should be in there somewhere, but I can't find anything that makes sense to me.
I've done similar things in the past, with SendKeys to simulate the user typing, and AutoIT to code-control a running DOS application, including reading the programs responses from the DOS screen and forcing in commands, all from VBA. It seems to me that this should be possible, and not even all that uncommon a requirement, but I've not located anything helpful in all my searching, and I've done a lot. Maybe I'm simply phrasing my searches wrong, but at this point, I'm just flat stuck.
I am working presently on the adf side and I am stuck with some issues.
I have a page where I have to display the pdf files. The pdf files are in another site and the links are present in a column of the database.But when I try to access those links they are downloading rather than displaying. I need to display those pdf files in my inline frame rather than downloading.
I heard many suggestions like write a bean and put the file in session and get display them in page .But I am not clear.
So please help me on this.
I have a check box at the end and the checkbox should be enabled in my page only when the displayed pdf scrolled to end.
Please help me solving those issues.
When you create a link to a PDF there is only so much you can do to make it display in the browser. The most important thing you must do on the server that delivers the PDF is to make sure it is presented with the correct MIME-type and without a content-disposition header value of attachment.
After that, it's up to the browser to either show it in a browser tab or to download the file. I know Chrome will show the PDF in the browser when it's linked to, not sure if it also does that when it's linked in an iframe.
I don't think there's a reliable way to make it work the way you want, simply because it's very browser dependent.
Background
I am attempting to automate the downloading of an Excel file given a URL. I know how to do this, and realize there are many examples for how to do this using either the webbrowser or webclient control however my situation is somewhat different.
Problem
If I simply paste the URL into a normal browser, it will result in asking me to save / open the file like normal. When using the same URL with either the web browser or web client controls, it results in no file. I believe this is because the URL is simply a SharePoint link, that sends a request to get the file, but is not the actual file itself.
This can be done for security reasons or whatever the case is but I was wondering if anyone has ever found a way around this?
Perhaps a way to even just emulate the browser, then emulate clicking save?
The URL for the Excel file does NOT end in .xlsx, it ends in something like:
webclient/zhZZXYRyAaLUgD?TC_file=redirs/viewdataset
which is why I think the server simply processes the request and then provides the browser the file.
I am attempting to do this in VB.NET but VBA or VB answers seem like they should work as well.
Fiddler Results
I seemed to find an easy way to solve my problem. After downloading my file within Internet Explorer, and then viewing my recent downloads, IE has an option if you right click and select "Copy Download Link". This puts the true download URL in the clipboard and actually works using the My.computer.downloadfile method.
I have: LiveCycle server (ES3, JBOSS), Workbench, Designer.
Using LC Desginer I convert PDF to XDP - it's template now.
Now I need to convert that XDP file to PDF.
So, I guess I should somehow call LiveCycle server by HTTP request, in body of this request I can send body of XDP document. All what I need from LC is just PDF.
Looks like simple task, but I can't find ANY information how to do this. I see a lot of examples how to do this in Java, but I don't need Java, I need to do it via HTTP (REST endpoint or SOAP if it's not possible).
Maybe I need to create some "application" in Workbench? If so, is there any step-by-step documentation? Or maybe somebody can explain me, how to do this. Maybe there is already build-in application in ES3 Server - I think it's very common and simple case.
UPD: I've opened job at Odesk for this issue, I promise to post solution here to share knowledge with community
As was promised, here is how to solve this issue:
It's not enough just put PDF into LiveCycle Designer. You exactly need to design form in LC Designer. You can use your PDF as template, but for all things which you want to fulfil by your custom data, you need to add objects in LC Designer (take a look at the "Insert" menu, try Table or Text Field) and add Data Connection in the "Data View" tab. I think it's pretty easy step for professionals, but it can take some time to get by beginners. Save results of your work as, for instance, Template.xdp file.
Also you now have the example of XML file - source of the data. Let's name it DataSource.xml
Now we can install LiveCycle Server. Best for LC ES3 is RHEL 5.5 (we spent around 2 days just to find correct combination of OS and settings). You'll need a clever system-administrator (or just experienced in Adobe LiveCycle :))
Server is working now, you can see web-interface, so let's create application in Adobe LiveCycle Workbench ES3. Add an application with new name and add a process to that application. It will take to many words to describe all steps of process, just take a look at screenshots of result (and notice variables also):
Now most easy part - call this app by the HTTP request. But we can't just send usual POST request to Adobe LiveCycle :) We have to send content of 2 files (Template.xdp and DataSource.xml) as multipart/form-data and names of the parts are the names of input variables (in my example is xmlTemplate and xmlData). And don't forget Authorization header with Basic authorization credentials.
In the Response you'll receive base64-encoded body of the PDF document.
Thanks to Thierry Stortenbeker for this application and for help and patience.
Yes, you have to create an LC application using workbench. Here is how to do it:
Create a new application in workbench using File -> New -> Application.
Create a new Process using the right click menu at the application.
Drop in renderPDF form activity from the activity and name it "renderPDFForm".
Select renderPDF form activity to add variables using the bottom pane of variables.
Add a variable of "Document" type and name it "inputXDP". We will use this to pass xdp file. Mark it to be "input" variable.
Add a variable of "Document" type and name it "outPDF". Mark it to be "output" variable.
Now double click renderPDFForm activity, this will open a property editor on the left side.
Expand "Input" section if not expanded already. Make sure "Form" to be picked up from variable. Then choose "inputXDP" from the dropdown.
Expand "Output" section if not expanded already. Make sure "Rendered Form" to be picked up from variable. Then choose "outPDF" variable from the dropdown.
Now deploy your application by right click menu on application.
That is it. You are ready to go. Now save the process and double click "default start point" to get the rest url where this service would be exposed. The rest url should look like http://localhost:8080/rest/services/RestFormRender/renderForm:1.0. Here RestFormRender is name of the application and renderForm is name of the process. Now make a GET/POST call to this REST url and specify XDP bytes in "inputXDP" request parameter.
I have a script that generates a temporary PDF file, binary-streams it to the client, then deletes it.
If you click on "Save Page As" in the browser File menu, it wants to save the correct file name that I specified through Content-Disposition.
However, if you click on the Save button in the Acrobat reader or Acrobat Pro, it wants to save the name of the script file, replacing ".asp" with ".pdf". It's like Acrobat completely ignores "Content-Disposition"
It's important that I don't use a static URL, but instead use a Dynamic script to generate the PDF, so that I can delete it immediately upon closing the stream. Otherwise, I can't know when the client is finished downloading.
Is there a solution to this? I've seen several threads, but none with an answer.
You can use a URL rewriter to point a "static" path to your dynamic script.
See this blog post on classic asp redirection.
So, you can have a link like:
http://www.example.com/12_234_file.pdf
Redirect to:
http://www.example.com/dynamic.asp?id=12&id2=234
The client will see the URL before it was re-written and should use that.