Opening a PDF file inside a WebView

Question

Around 2 days I tried to open PDF files in my custom WebvView. Here's my WebView code:

import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.app.ProgressDialog;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.KeyEvent;
import android.view.View;
import android.webkit.WebChromeClient;
import android.webkit.WebSettings;
import android.webkit.WebView;
import android.webkit.WebViewClient;
import android.widget.ProgressBar;

public class WebActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    public
    WebView mywebViewfull;
    ProgressBar progressBar;



    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_web);
        String url = getIntent().getStringExtra("url");
        mywebViewfull = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webnav1);
        progressBar=(ProgressBar)findViewById(R.id.progressbar1);
        WebSettings webSettings= mywebViewfull.getSettings();
        webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
        webSettings.setPluginState(WebSettings.PluginState.ON);
        webSettings.setGeolocationEnabled(true);
        webSettings.setJavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically(true);
        webSettings.setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
        webSettings.setSaveFormData(true);
        webSettings.setAppCacheEnabled(true);
        webSettings.setDatabaseEnabled(true);
        webSettings.setDomStorageEnabled(true);
        webSettings.setLoadsImagesAutomatically(true);
        webSettings.setAllowFileAccess(true);
        webSettings.setAllowFileAccessFromFileURLs(true);
        webSettings.setAllowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs(true);
        webSettings.setUseWideViewPort(true);
        webSettings.setBuiltInZoomControls(false);
        webSettings.setGeolocationDatabasePath(getFilesDir().getPath());
        webSettings.setAllowFileAccess(true);
        webSettings.setAllowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs(true);
        mywebViewfull.loadUrl(url);
        mywebViewfull.setWebViewClient(new mywebViewfullClient());


    }


    @Override
    public void onBackPressed() {
        if(mywebViewfull.canGoBack())
        {
            mywebViewfull.goBack();
        }

        else
        {
            super.onBackPressed();
        }
    }
    class mywebViewfullClient extends WebViewClient {
    @Override
    public void onPageStarted(WebView view, String url, Bitmap favicon) {
        super.onPageStarted(view, url, favicon);
        progressBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
        //getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
       // android.support.v7.app.ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
       // actionBar.hide();
    }

    @Override
    public void onPageFinished(WebView view, String url) {
        super.onPageFinished(view, url);
        progressBar.setVisibility(View.GONE);
    }
    @Override
    public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
        if (url != null && url.startsWith("http://")) {
            //open url contents in webview
            return false;
        }if (url != null && url.startsWith("https://")) {
                //open url contents in webview
            return false;
              //this must open pdf file
        }if (url.endsWith(".pdf")) {
            mywebViewfull.loadUrl("https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url="+getIntent().getStringExtra("url"));
            return false;

        }
        else {
            //external links in app
            Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url));
            startActivity(intent);
            return true;

        }
    }
}
    //back previous page
    @Override
    public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
        if (event.getAction()==KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN){
            switch (keyCode){
                case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK:
                    if (mywebViewfull.canGoBack()) {
                        mywebViewfull.goBack();
                    }
                    else  {
                        finish();
                    }
                    return true;
            }
        }
        return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);


    }

}

So... When I try to open pdf document, nothing happens in my app.

I can't see what's wrong! Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

If you want to display the PDF inside the web view use:

   url = "https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=https://linkToYourPdf.pdf"

   webView.loadUrl(url);

If your PDF contains more then one page, don't forget to enable the vertical scroll

   webview.setVerticalScrollBarEnabled(true);

Answer 2

Try the following for the webview option if you choose that

WebView webview = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
webview.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true); 
String pdf = "online pdf link";
webview.loadUrl("http://drive.google.com/viewerng/viewer?embedded=true&url=" + pdf);

But Remember if you use google docs for viewing the pdf or any other doc, google docs may throw you the error stating

You've reached the bandwidth limit for viewing or downloading files that aren't in Google Docs format..... So doesn't seem reliable

So, be cautious with google doc viewing

please refer to my whole answer if you have a pdf reading through asset folder

Answer 3

There is no native support to open PDF files in Android, but you have some workarounds that can more or less do the job for you. Alternatives:

1 - You could open your system default app to read the pdf file by an intent from your app;

2 - You could use a third party library to open the pdf inside your app;

3 - You could invoke Google Docs website functionality to open your pdf file inside your webview. To do so, use the following code sample:

String pdfUrl = "http://yourwebsite.com/yourfile.pdf";
String url = "http://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=" + pdfUrl;
webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
webView.loadUrl(url);