PDF rendering

[Nautilus]

Hi there!

We are rendering some PDF reports from an ASP.NET application, directly
to the IE browser. Those reports are beign generated from a SQL
Reporting Services server. We have the requirement of displaying the
reports inside the browser. In order to do that, we have this:

Response.ClearContent();
Response.ClearHeaders();
Response.AppendHeader("content-length", reportData.Length.ToString());
Response.AppendHeader("content-disposition", "inline;
filename=SalesReport.pdf");
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.BinaryWrite(reportData);
Response.Flush();
Response.Close();

The report shows perfectly. But our problem is that inside the Acrobat
Reader "sub window" on the browser, if the user clicks "Send By Email",
the reader creates an outlook email with an attachment called
"Report.ASPX". This one is the ASPX page used for rendering the report,
instead the "SalesReport.pdf" name suggested in the headers. Of course,
the customers complains about seeing garbage when looking at the attach
(really a PDF file, with the wrong extension).

Is there are any other way to indicate the filename to IE? Any ideas or
workaround on this?

Any suggestion is really appreciated. Thanks a ton in advance!!!

 

[John Timney \( MVP \)]

I think you need something like this, specificying an attachment rather than
just a filename

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=fred.pdf")

 

[Nautilus]

Hi John! Many thanks for the input!

Unfortunately, that produces that IE treat that as an attachment,
displaying the "Save As / Open" dialog... and we need to display the
PDF right inside the browser window.

That's why we tried with the "inline" option...

Thanks again!

Best!
Mariano

 

[Paul Henderson]

You could try adding a 'name' parameter to your Content-Type:

Response.ContentType = "application/pdf; name=SalesReport.pdf";

 

[Nautilus]

Hi there!

Many thanks for the input again! I just tried that, and now IE just
doesn't display anything...

It's very frustrating that IE doesn't well interpret the
"content-disposition" headers, and pass that to Acrobat.. as it should
be. I keep trying any kind of workarounds, like using a
"Report.pdf.aspx" page, but it's the same.

Thanks a ton to all!
Mariano

 

[Andrew Robinson]

Why not write the report to disk with a correct filename and then point the
browser at the file. If you need to insure a unique name, you could create a
directory with a based name and then write the pdf inside of that
directory.

 

[Nautilus]

Hi Andrew!

Yes, that would be our last chance... But we are trying to avoid it
because of "performance" problems. In order to have the same
"SalesActivities.pdf" name for each report request, we would need to
create a folder (for example based on a GUID), and put the file
there... and of course, add some background process for erasing the
files, and removing the folders..

At this point, I'm thinking in pushing to change the requirement, and
leave this as is.

Many thanks to all!