How to send byte[] as pdf to browser in java web application?

Question

In action method (JSF) i have something like below:

public String getFile() {
  byte[] pdfData = ...
  // how to return byte[] as file to web browser user ?
         


        

Answer 1

You just have to set the mime type to application/x-pdf into your response. You can use the setContentType(String contentType) method to do this in the servlet case.
In JSF/JSP you could use this, before writing your response:

<%@ page contentType="application/x-pdf" %>

and response.write(yourPDFDataAsBytes()); to write your data.
But I really advise you to use servlets in this case. JSF is used to render HTML views, not PDF or binary files.

With servlets you can use this :

public MyPdfServlet extends HttpServlet {
    protected doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp){
         OutputStream os = resp.getOutputStream();
         resp.setContentType("Application/x-pdf");
         os.write(yourMethodToGetPdfAsByteArray());
    } 
}

---

Resources :

• mimeapplication.net - pdf
• Javadoc - ServletResponse
• Javadoc - HttpServlet