PDF binary data output in .NET

Question

I have a question about outputting PDF files. Currently I'm storing the PDF in the database in binary form. I'm outputting the PDF file via a URL such as:

http://myhost.com/FileManager.aspx?FileId=8465b2f9-b64e-4a9a-a449-94b5adb3b278

so from what I could deduce, to the browser this is an .aspx page that is loading and not a PDF. Firefox and IE interpret this correctly and launch Adobe Acrobat, however since Chrome (12.0.742.112) has its own implementation of a PDF reader, it will open the file correctly, but then when someone goes to save the file in chrome, it wants to save it as a .aspx. If I simply rename the .aspx to .pdf, the file downloads correctly. However, I"m trying to avoid telling my customer that s/he may have to take that extra step.

When I chose to look at the headers that loaded in Chrome via Web Inspector, I see this:

FileManager.aspx:-1 Resource interpreted as Document but transferred with MIME type application/pdf

I can completely understand why Chrome would say this.

Furthermore, I get a save as box upon page load when I add:

Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=blah.pdf");

However, I was hoping to just keep the file in a browser. So aside from using some URL Rewrite, is there a way I can manipulate the HTTP Headers to simply open the page as a PDF and save correctly in Chrome?

Lastly, I tried using a WebService, but I can't seem to write the binary data to the page.

this.Context.Response.BinaryWrite(bytes);

Any help is appreciated!

Justin M. Keyes · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-04 14:38:58Z

4

In the web application's top-level web.config, add the following <add> element to the <httpHandlers> section:

<httpHandlers>
    <add verb="*" path="FileManager.pdf" type="ProjectName.FileManager" />

...where ProjectName.FileManager is the full name (namespace and classname) of the FileManager class in FileManager.aspx.cs.

This tells ASP.NET to handle the path /FileManager.pdf using the handler defined by ProjectName.FileManager. (System.Web.UI.Page implements the IHttpHandler interface, so every webform is a handler.)

Now you can serve the PDFs via a URL with a .pdf extension like so:

http://myhost.com/FileManager.pdf?FileId=8465b2f9-b64e-4a9a-a449-94b5adb3b278

You do not need to rename the physical FileManager.aspx file. When the user enters /FileManager.pdf?FileId=foo in the browser, ASP.NET will handle the request with the ProjectName.FileManager class defined in FileManager.aspx.

Note:

The above should work on Cassini (the Visual Studio "mini" webserver) with no further changes. However IIS by default only sends *.aspx, *.asmx, *.ashx requests to ASP.NET. Therefore, for the above to work on IIS, you need to tell it to send requests for /FileManager.pdf to ASP.NET. That is, you need to configure a "mapping".

With IIS 6 you need to configure the mapping using IIS manager.

With IIS 7 you can configure a mapping from your web.config--this makes deployment easier, but it depends on how your hosting is set up.

edited Oct 4, 2018 at 14:38

answered Jul 13, 2011 at 0:51

Justin M. Keyes

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1 Comment

Tomasz Iniewicz Over a year ago

cool, thanks. I can't believe I didn't think of that. Anyhow your directions are slightly incomplete, to anyone else reading this, this allows me to rename my FileManager.aspx to FileManager.pdf write my URL like so: myhost.com/FileManager.pdf?FileId=2355235. Thanks much Justin.

Branco Medeiros · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-13 01:16:16Z

2

Something that worked for me was to add the intended filename between the application page name (in your case, FileManager.aspx) and the query mark (the ? mark).

So, in the end, you'd have something like this:

http://myhost.com/FileManager.aspx/myfile.pdf?FileId=8465b2f9-b64e-4a9a-a449-94b5adb3b278

Surprisingly, the correct application will run (Filemanager.aspx), the variables will be passed unharmed (FileId), the result will be treated as inline (if you didn't change it to attachment, that is) but the browser will think that the filename to use, in case the user wants to save the page, is myfile.pdf.

answered Jul 13, 2011 at 1:16

Branco Medeiros

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2 Comments

Justin M. Keyes Over a year ago

That's a good idea. But I think it would still require configuration of IIS to send *.pdf requests to ASP.NET. Correct?

Branco Medeiros Over a year ago

I'm actually on Apache =P I don't think the OP would need to change anything from the current configuration, though... I mean, if I understood correctly, the OP is able to return inline pdf's already, the problem seems to be when the user tries to save the file. Unfortunately I don't have an IIS box at hand here to give it a try =)

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