Window.Open with PDF stream instead of PDF location

Question

Based on the question Open PDF in new browser full window, it looks like I can use JavaScript to open a new window with a PDF file with the following code:

window.open('MyPDF.pdf', '_blank');

I'd like to do so on a return trip from the server by adding a byte array instead of the file name to use as the URL location in window.open

I'm currently returning PDF files like this:

Response.Clear();
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.BinaryWrite(pdfByteArray);
Response.Flush();

Is there a way to open a new window with a PDF byte array in javascript.

Something like this:

var script = "window.open('" + pdfByteArray + "', '_blank');";
ScriptManager.RegisterClientScriptBlock(Parent.Page, typeof(Page), "pdf", script, true);

Answer 1

It looks like window.open will take a Data URI as the location parameter.

So you can open it like this from the question: Opening PDF String in new window with javascript:

window.open("data:application/pdf;base64, " + base64EncodedPDF);

Here's an runnable example in plunker, and sample pdf file that's already base64 encoded.

Then on the server, you can convert the byte array to base64 encoding like this:

string fileName = @"C:\TEMP\TEST.pdf";
byte[] pdfByteArray = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(fileName);
string base64EncodedPDF = System.Convert.ToBase64String(pdfByteArray);

NOTE: This seems difficult to implement in IE because the URL length is prohibitively small for sending an entire PDF.

Answer 2

Note: I have verified this in the latest version of IE, and other browsers like Mozilla and Chrome and this works for me. Hope it works for others as well.

if (data == "" || data == undefined) {
    alert("Falied to open PDF.");
} else { //For IE using atob convert base64 encoded data to byte array
    if (window.navigator && window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
        var byteCharacters = atob(data);
        var byteNumbers = new Array(byteCharacters.length);
        for (var i = 0; i < byteCharacters.length; i++) {
            byteNumbers[i] = byteCharacters.charCodeAt(i);
        }
        var byteArray = new Uint8Array(byteNumbers);
        var blob = new Blob([byteArray], {
            type: 'application/pdf'
        });
        window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blob, fileName);
    } else { // Directly use base 64 encoded data for rest browsers (not IE)
        var base64EncodedPDF = data;
        var dataURI = "data:application/pdf;base64," + base64EncodedPDF;
        window.open(dataURI, '_blank');
    }

}

Answer 3

Adding to @Dinesh's answer to handle Not allowed to navigate top frame to data URL error in Chrome and Edge

if (data == "" || data == undefined) {
    // Log Error: PDF data not available
} else {
    var byteCharacters = atob(data);                        
    var byteNumbers = new Array(byteCharacters.length);
    for (var i = 0; i < byteCharacters.length; i++) {
      byteNumbers[i] = byteCharacters.charCodeAt(i);
    }
    var byteArray = new Uint8Array(byteNumbers);
    var file = new Blob([byteArray], { type: 'application/pdf;base64' });
                            
    if (window.navigator && window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
        // For IE
        window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(file, 'mypdf.pdf');
    } else {
        // For non-IE
        var fileURL = URL.createObjectURL(file);
        window.open(fileURL);
    }
}