Open online pdf file through android intent?

Question

Currently I have a pdf url, and I would like to simply using the intent to open it, however, it does not work if I put the url in intent

Answer 1

you can view PDF in web view like this

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);

intent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse( "http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=" + pdfLink), "text/html");

startActivity(intent);

Answer 2

you can use the SkewPdfView library for loading pdf from remote urls.

First of all, Add following in your root build.gradle:

allprojects {
repositories {
    ...
    maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
}

}

and add the SkewPdfView Library as:

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.github.naya-aastra:SkewPdfView:1.1'
}

Now Include SkewPdfView in your layout:

<com.nayaastra.skewpdfview.SkewPdfView
    android:id="@+id/skewPdfView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"/>

Load a PDF file programmatically as:

SkewPdfView skewPdfView;
skewPdfView = findViewById(R.id.skewPdfView);
skewPdfView.loadPdf(pdfLink);

P.S. link of SkewPdfView library

SkewPdfView Github Page

Answer 3

Best practice is wrapping your Intent to Chooser before starting. It provides users with built-in application selection dialog and lets avoid ActivityNotFoundException

Here a little example:

Intent browserIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
browserIntent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(msg.getData()), Constants.MIME_PDF);

Intent chooser = Intent.createChooser(browserIntent, getString(R.string.chooser_title));
chooser.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK); // optional

startActivity(chooser);

Where Constants.MIME_PDF is defined as String value "application/pdf".

---

It is possible to ask PackageManager is this Intent has appropriate handling Activity or not.

public static boolean isActivityForIntentAvailable(Context context, Intent intent) {
    final PackageManager packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
    List list = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(intent, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);
    return list.size() > 0;
}

Answer 4

With kotlin using anko, simply call

 context.browse(PDF_URL)

to open any doc file, your browser will redirect you to the doc viewer app.

If you want to use Google Docs, then append your pdf url as,

"http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=$PDF_URL"

Answer 5

You can view or download the pdf by either of the two ways i.e by opening it in device in-built browser or in the webview by embedding it in your app.

To open the pdf in browser,

Intent browserIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(pdf_url));
startActivity(browserIntent);

Instead to open in webview,

 Webview webView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView1);
 webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
 webView.loadUrl(pdf_url);

Answer 6

you can view pdf in webview like this

WebView webView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
webView.getSettings().setPluginsEnabled(true);
webView.loadUrl("https://docs.google.com/viewer?"+pdf_url);