Embedding PDF in an MVC view from binary data

Question

My issue is I'm currently receiving from a web service response a string that is the binary data of a PDF file. I need to display this PDF file embedded in an MVC view. I'm using C#.

Any pointers are appreciated.

I should've mentioned that I'm looking to embed the PDF in an <iframe> or <object> since there's going to be other content in the page. Is there a way to do this? — Gary2112
– Gary2112, Commented May 16, 2013 at 19:07
the concept is pretty much the same, you just need to create a page that contains an iframe and make that iframe point to the view that renders the pdf. See my updated answer — Ulises
– Ulises, Commented May 20, 2013 at 13:28

Ulises · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-20 13:27:23Z

1

You can just return it using File. Something like this:

public ActionResult ShowPDF()
{
  byte[] pdf = myService.GetPDF();
  return File(pdf, "application/pdf");      
}

UPDATE

Create a page containing a iframe element and set the src attribute to point to your view that renders the PDF file. Here is an example taken from here

<iframe src="ShowPDF" width="100%" style="height:20em">

 [Your browser does <em>not</em> support <code>iframe</code>,
 or has been configured not to display inline frames.
 You can access <a href="ShowPDF">the document</a>
 via a link though.]

</iframe>

edited May 20, 2013 at 13:27

answered May 16, 2013 at 17:08

Ulises

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2 Comments

Gary2112 Over a year ago

Thanks for your help. I've found another way to do this is to set a ViewData entry to: ViewData["PDF_src"] = "data:application/pdf;base64," + Convert.ToBase64String(PDF_src); and to have the iframe src attribute set to this value.

Ulises Over a year ago

Yep, same thing. Our solutions, in essence, are the same. I'd stay away from ViewData though.

user2378769 · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-24 20:15:53Z

0

HTML5 has added the embed tag which allows a variety of rich content to be embedded into the page as follows:<embed src="your file path here" type="application/pdf" />

answered Sep 24, 2014 at 20:15

user2378769

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