I'm developing a UI that interfaces with an existing back-end service. The UI needs to make a call to the back-end server for a PDF file that will either be displayed on the existing page or in a new tab.
I've tried all the options I've seen listed on SO:
<iframe src="http://localhost:3131/Reports.aspx?reportName=testReport&clientid=23" width="800px" height="100%"></iframe>
<embed type="application/pdf" src="//http://samelinkasabove" width="800px" height="100%">
<object type="application/pdf" data="http://myreportlink" width="800px" height="100%" />
<a href="http://localhost:32/Reports.aspx?reportName=testReport&clientid=23" target="_blank">View Report</a>
In every case, the pdf winds up as a download rather than being displayed in a browser window. Is there a native way to display a pdf or is javascript required to make this happen?
I found that the server was using CrystalReports to generate the PDF and "export" it. It used a function ExportToHttpResponse(...) and the third parameter in the method call was bool asAttachment.
That parameter was being set to true. I changed it to false and the response began being set to inline and the above display methods began working.