Generating PDF and displaying it ...

[Mufaddal Khumri]

Hi,
I have a servlet that generates a PDF document and then sends it to the clients browser. If the client has a PDF plugin for his or her browser, the PDF document opens in the client's browser window, else the client gets a dialog box asking him to save the PDF document to his or her hard disk.
In my web application the client clicks a link which invokes a smaller child window for the PDF to be displayed in. The problem I am facing is that while the PDF is being generated, I need to show the client some kind of notification in this child browser window - Some message like -"Please wait while the document downloads" or something to that tune, could be a gif image of some sort. How do I do this ?
I tried one approach that is i write the header information in my servlet and flush that, so that the client gets that information and starts displaying the PDF as its being genrated, but that did not work. The PDF gets generated sent and then only does it appear in the child window.
Any help on this will be appreciated.
Thanks.
[ September 21, 2003: Message edited by: Mufaddal Khumri ]

[clyde melly]

 
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;

public class ServletPdf extends HttpServlet
{ 
  
  public void doPost (HttpServletRequestrequest,
                     HttpServletResponse response) 
       throws ServletException, IOException
  {
  
    BufferedInputStream  bis = null; 
    BufferedOutputStream bos = null;
     
    ServletOutputStream  out           = 
        response.getOutputStream ();

    String title = "Simple Servlet Output";
    
    
    response.setContentType("text/msword");
    
    
    String fileURL ="C:/servletxml/melly/ch03.pdf";
    
    
 response.setHeader("Content-disposition","attachment; filename=" +"Example.pdf" );
try {
        URL url = new URL( fileURL  );
        // Use Buffered Stream for reading/writing.
        bis = new BufferedInputStream(url.openStream());
        bos = new BufferedOutputStream(out);
        byte[] buff = new byte[2048];
        int bytesRead;
        // Simple read/write loop.
        while(-1 != (bytesRead = bis.read(buff, 0, buff.length))) {
            bos.write(buff, 0, bytesRead);
        }
    } catch( MalformedURLException e) {
        System.out.println ( "MalformedURLException." );
        throw e;
    } catch( IOException e) {
        System.out.println ( "IOException." );
        throw e;
    } finally {
        if (bis != null)
            bis.close();
        if (bos != null)
            bos.close();
    }
}
}
I get an error with this program.Where am i going wrong.Kindly help.I want to check for both.Either dislay it in the browser or save it to a file.
    
 

[Idly Vada]

I think you can make use of HTTP page refresh header. While the PDF is being generated, send PDF progress message. And when the PDF generation is complete, send the actual PDF.

I think this solves your problem

[Idly Vada]

The probelm might be with
response.setContentType("text/msword");
The content type should be application/pdf

Can you give the error messages?

[manasa teja]

Originally posted by Mufaddal Khumri:
Hi,
I have a servlet that generates a PDF document and then sends it to the clients browser. If the client has a PDF plugin for his or her browser, the PDF document opens in the client's browser window, else the client gets a dialog box asking him to save the PDF document to his or her hard disk.
In my web application the client clicks a link which invokes a smaller child window for the PDF to be displayed in. The problem I am facing is that while the PDF is being generated, I need to show the client some kind of notification in this child browser window - Some message like -"Please wait while the document downloads" or something to that tune, could be a gif image of some sort. How do I do this ?
I tried one approach that is i write the header information in my servlet and flush that, so that the client gets that information and starts displaying the PDF as its being genrated, but that did not work. The PDF gets generated sent and then only does it appear in the child window.
Any help on this will be appreciated.
Thanks.
[ September 21, 2003: Message edited by: Mufaddal Khumri ]

Did anyone have any solution fore this.. I also have to implement the same.. How can I achieve this.. by thebye, I am using servlet and Itext to generate teh report.. Ho wto open a new window to and show the report there...
Thanks for ur help!!
MT
[ October 22, 2003: Message edited by: manasa teja ]

[manasa teja]

Anybody..
please help me on this..
thanks
MT

[Balaji Loganathan]

Originally posted by manasa teja:
Anybody..
please help me on this..
thanks
MT

Please read this thread https://coderanch.com/t/355076/Servlets/java/Wait-Screen and search for "wait screen" in servlets forum.

[Sean Sullivan]

Dynamically Creating PDFs in a Web Application
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/06/18/dynamic_files.html
(p.s. - use iText)

[manasa teja]

Originally posted by Sean Sullivan:
Dynamically Creating PDFs in a Web Application
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/06/18/dynamic_files.html
(p.s. - use iText)

Thanks Sean.. Infact, I used your article only to generate the reports..
Thats a wonderful article!! The example is a really good one !!
In the pdf report, we are generating a table of some 5000/6000 rows. So,the execution time is some 12 seconds. So, our customer wants to show something like "PLease wait.. your reuqets us being processed" and show the report.
And one more thing is that, we have to show this report in a new window.
My doubt is how to open a new window fro servlet and show the report there..

[manasa teja]

HAs anyone have any suggestions on how to about this?