How to use jQuery $.ajax to open a pdf w/out a post-back?

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+1 Q:

How to use jQuery $.ajax to open a pdf w/out a post-back?

I have a very dynamic UI that provides the end user 2 detail views (each one a step deeper than the previous). When i get to the bottom of this chain I would like the ability to "preview" a pdf file ... but the only luck I have thus far is using window.open(url) and this pops up an additional browser window in IE6/7 (not desired if at all possible)

My question is this - how "should" I structure this type of functionality if I can generate a pdf on the server side (no problem) and want to display this to the user w/out a post-back?

+3 A:

jQuery is just a wrapper for javascript - it can only weave so much magic - you still have finite options here. Window.Open or an Iframe. Or perhaps you can find some sort of activex component to background load a pdf? - or perhaps it's possible to interpret and render a pdf in javascript.. but I doubt that would be a pleasent UI experience.

tough one, hope this helps.

BPAndrew 2009-02-03 17:02:11

agreed ... thanks for the reply

Toran Billups 2009-02-03 17:03:04

does adobe have a activeX component? if so you could render it out beforehand, if someone requests a pdf, pull the bytes in and link it to the component? totally guess here, never even had a problem close to this.

BPAndrew 2009-02-03 17:05:38

that might be possible, but I'm trying to keep this cross browser and would like to avoid active-x unless it's the only option ;)

Toran Billups 2009-02-03 17:09:07

yes, please please please consider the children.

Zach 2009-02-03 17:21:34

If you want to preview a PDF inline, the only way to do that is to render an image on the server, and load that.

Craig Stuntz 2009-02-03 17:41:08

ansaurus

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How to use jQuery $.ajax to open a pdf w/out a post-back?

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