Display Pdf in browser using express js

user_1328276 0
Viewed 77345

I'm trying to serve a PDF via Express in a way it is displayed in browser:

app.post('/asset', function(request, response){
  var tempFile="/home/applmgr/Desktop/123456.pdf";
  fs.readFile(tempFile, function (err,data){
     response.contentType("application/pdf");
     response.send(data);
  });
});

However, the browser shows binary content. How to handle this correctly?

express node.js buffer pdf javascript
7 Answers

Actually Express already has this feature for sending files. All you need is :

app.get('/sendMePDF', function(req, res) {
  res.sendFile(__dirname + "/static/pdf/Rabbi.pdf");
})

Here the server will send the file "Rabbi.pdf" and it will open in browser like you open pdf in browser. I placed the file in "static" folder but you can place it anywhere, knowing that sendFile() takes as argument the absolute path (not relative one).

user_110099020

According to Express js documentation you can set the Content Type and the Content Disposition all in one function as shown below

 fs.readFile(filePath, (err, data) => {
res.set({
  "Content-Type": "application/pdf", //here you set the content type to pdf
  "Content-Disposition": "inline; filename=" + fileName, //if you change from inline to attachment if forces the file to download but inline displays the file on the browser
});
res.send(data); // here we send the pdf file to the browser
});
user_33678970 
post('/fileToSend/', async (req, res) => {

  const documentPath = path.join(
    __dirname,
    '../assets/documents/document.pdf'
  );
    
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/pdf');
  res.setHeader('Content-Disposition', 'attachment; filename=document.pdf');

  return res.download(documentPath);
});
user_86469620
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