Download and open PDF file using Ajax

Question

I have an action class that generates a PDF. The contentType is set appropriately.

public class MyAction extends ActionSupport 
{
   public String execute() {
    ...
    ...
    File report = signedPdfExporter.generateReport(xyzData, props);

    inputStream = new FileInputStream(report);
    contentDisposition = "attachment=\"" + report.getName() + "\"";
    contentType = "application/pdf";
    return SUCCESS;
   }
}

I call this action through an Ajax call. I don't know the way to deliver this stream to browser. I tried a few things but nothing worked.

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: url,
    data: wireIdList,
    cache: false,
    success: function(response)
    {
        alert('got response');
        window.open(response);
    },
    error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) 
    {
        alert('Error occurred while opening fax template' 
              + getAjaxErrorString(textStatus, errorThrown));
    }
});

The above gives the error:

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

Answer 1

create a hidden iframe, then in your ajax code above:

url: document.getElementById('myiframeid').src = your_server_side_url,

and remove the window.open(response);

Answer 2

I don't really think that any of the past answers spotted out the problem of the original poster. They all presume a GET request while the poster was trying to POST data and get a download in response.

In the course of searching for any better answer we found this jQuery Plugin for Requesting Ajax-like File Downloads.

In its "heart" it creates a "temporary" HTML form containing the given data as input fields. This form is appended to the document and posted to the desired URL. Right after that the form is removed again:

jQuery('<form action="'+ url +'" method="'+ (method||'post') +'">'+inputs+'</form>')
    .appendTo('body').submit().remove()

Update Mayur's answer looks pretty promising and very simple in comparison to the jQuery plug-in I referred to.

Answer 3

This snippet is for angular js users which will face the same problem, Note that the response file is downloaded using a programmed click event. In this case , the headers were sent by server containing filename and content/type.

$http({
    method: 'POST', 
    url: 'DownloadAttachment_URL',
    data: { 'fileRef': 'filename.pdf' }, //I'm sending filename as a param
    headers: { 'Authorization': $localStorage.jwt === undefined ? jwt : $localStorage.jwt },
    responseType: 'arraybuffer',
}).success(function (data, status, headers, config) {
    headers = headers();
    var filename = headers['x-filename'];
    var contentType = headers['content-type'];
    var linkElement = document.createElement('a');
    try {
        var blob = new Blob([data], { type: contentType });
        var url = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);

        linkElement.setAttribute('href', url);
        linkElement.setAttribute("download", filename);

        var clickEvent = new MouseEvent("click", {
            "view": window,
            "bubbles": true,
            "cancelable": false
        });
        linkElement.dispatchEvent(clickEvent);
    } catch (ex) {
        console.log(ex);
    }
}).error(function (data, status, headers, config) {
}).finally(function () {

});

Answer 4

Do you have to do it with Ajax? Coouldn't it be a possibility to load it in an iframe?

Answer 5

var xhr;
var beforeSend = function(){
    $('#pleasewaitDL').modal('show');
}
$(function () {
    $('#print_brochure_link').click(function(){
        beforeSend();
        xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
        xhr.open("GET",$('#preparedPrintModalForm').attr('action'), true); 
        xhr.responseType = "blob";
        xhr.onload = function (e) {
            if (this.status === 200) {
                var file = window.URL.createObjectURL(this.response);
                var a = document.createElement("a");
                a.href = file;
                a.download = this.response.name || "Property Brochure";
                console.log(file);
                document.body.appendChild(a);
                a.click();
                
                window.onfocus = function () {                     
                  document.body.removeChild(a)
                }
                $('#pleasewaitDL').modal('hide');
            };
        };
        xhr.send($('#preparedPrintModalForm').serialize());
    });
    $('#pleasewaitDLCancel').click(function() {
        xhr.abort();
    });
});

Answer 6

Here is how I got this working

$.ajax({
  url: '<URL_TO_FILE>',
  success: function(data) {
    var blob=new Blob([data]);
    var link=document.createElement('a');
    link.href=window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
    link.download="<FILENAME_TO_SAVE_WITH_EXTENSION>";
    link.click();
  }
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

Updated answer using download.js

$.ajax({
  url: '<URL_TO_FILE>',
  success: download.bind(true, "<FILENAME_TO_SAVE_WITH_EXTENSION>", "<FILE_MIME_TYPE>")
});