how to open a pdf from specific URL in android

Question

I am an iOS developer but have been tasked with updating our company's android apps also (so I have little android experience) The android app currently loads PDFs from raw and then displays them in another pdf reader application also installed on the android... however I would like to instead get the pdf's from the internet.

this is the code being using to show the pdf stored locally.

          if (mExternalStorageAvailable==true && mExternalStorageWriteable==true)
      {
        // Create a path where we will place our private file on external
            // storage.
            Context context1 = getApplicationContext();
            File file = new File(context1.getExternalFilesDir(null).toString() + "/pdf.pdf");

            URL url = new URL("https://myurl/pdf.pdf");
            URLConnection urlConnection = url.openConnection();
            InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(urlConnection.getInputStream());
            OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream(file);
            try {


                byte[] data = new byte[in.available()];
                in.read(data);
                os.write(data);




                Uri path = Uri.fromFile(file);
                Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
                intent.setDataAndType(path, "application/pdf");
                intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);

                startActivity(intent);

            } catch (IOException e) {
                // Unable to create file, likely because external storage is
                // not currently mounted.
                Log.w("ExternalStorage", "Error writing " + file, e);


                Context context2 = getApplicationContext();
                CharSequence text1 = "PDF File NOT Saved";
                int duration1 = Toast.LENGTH_SHORT;
                  Toast toast = Toast.makeText(context2, text1, duration1);
                  toast.show();
            } finally {
                 in.close();
                 os.close();
            }

      }

Eventually the pdf's will come from a website and the website will require an HTML post request sent to it before the PDF can be downloaded. I think I will be able to figure out the HTML post, but for now how can I download a PDF from the internet and have it display. I tried changing the URI to point to the location but that didn't work, or I structured it incorrectly.

Also keep in mind for security reasons I do not want to display this using google viewer and a webview

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:10

1

You just need to read from a distant server. I'd try something like:

URL url = new URL("http://www.mydomain.com/slug");
URLConnection urlConnection = url.openConnection();
InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(urlConnection.getInputStream());
try {
    readStream(in); // Process your pdf
} finally {
    in.close();
}

You may also want to checkout the AndroidHttpClient class to make http requests directly (GET or POST in your application).

answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:10

francoisr

4,407
1
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I have edited my original post to reflect how I tried to incorporate this, however it is causing the app to crash.. have I done something wrong? – Ben Jul 30 '13 at 18:48
I ended up being able to use a slight modification of the answer on this problem http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9759205/download-a-pdf-file-and-save-it-to-sdcard-and-then-read-it-from-there – Ben Jul 31 '13 at 18:46

how to open a pdf from specific URL in android

1 Answers1