How to make PDF file downloadable in HTML link?

Question

Hi,

I am giving link of a pdf file on my web page for download, like below

Download Brochure

The problem is when user clicks on this link then

• If the user have installed Adobe Acrobat, then it opens the file in the same browser window in Adobe Reader.
• If the Adobe Acrobat is not installed then it pop-up to the user for Downloading the file.

But I want it always pop-up to the user for download, irrespective of "Adobe acrobat" is installed or not.

Please tell me how i can do this?

Answer 1

Instead of linking to the .PDF file, instead do something like

<a href="pdf_server.php?file=pdffilename">Download my eBook</a>

which outputs a custom header, opens the PDF (binary safe) and prints the data to the user's browser, then they can choose to save the PDF despite their browser settings. The pdf_server.php should look like this:

header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");

$file = $_GET["file"] .".pdf";
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=" . urlencode($file));   
header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Type: application/download");
header("Content-Description: File Transfer");            
header("Content-Length: " . filesize($file));
flush(); // this doesn't really matter.
$fp = fopen($file, "r");
while (!feof($fp))
{
    echo fread($fp, 65536);
    flush(); // this is essential for large downloads
} 
fclose($fp);

PS: and obviously run some sanity checks on the "file" variable to prevent people from stealing your files such as don't accept file extensions, add .pdf to the value

Answer 2

This is the key:

header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");

Content-type application/x-pdf-document or application/pdf is sent while sending PDF file. Adobe Reader usually sets the handler for this MIME type so browser will pass the document to Adobe Reader when any of PDF MIME types is received.

Answer 3

In a Ruby on Rails application (especially with something like the Prawn gem and the Prawnto Rails plugin), you can accomplish this a little more simply than a full on script (like the previous PHP example).

In your controller:

def index

 respond_to do |format|
   format.html # Your HTML view
   format.pdf { render :layout => false }
 end
end

The render :layout => false part tells the browser to open up the "Would you like to download this file?" prompt instead of attempting to render the PDF. Then you would be able to link to the file normally: http://mysite.com/myawesomepdf.pdf

Answer 4

Nice information. Instead of placing a PDF link, this is much better