Instead of downloading PDF, how to force PDF to open/view in browser only?

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AI-generated summary

Users are seeking a way to force PDFs to open/view directly in the browser instead of downloading, especially on mobile where Inline PDF doesn’t work. avndp notes that search engines trigger downloads, which is unfriendly for users who prefer online viewing. jord8on agrees the issue is important. denvergeeks suggests embedding PDFs via Google Drive using iFrames — a responsive solution that works on both desktop and mobile. thoka reports Inline PDF doesn’t work on desktop either and explains a workaround involving modifying FileHelper.inline_images and adding inline=1 to URLs, potentially via a theme component. thoka later shares a custom plugin they built to solve this: discourse-send-pdf-inline, which forces PDFs to serve with content-disposition: inline. The discussion highlights a gap in Discourse’s default behavior and offers both a quick embed workaround and a technical plugin-based fix.

1

Whenever I upload a PDF, it shows in the topic as follows:

image

I’m using Inline PDF to display it in Desktop version. But, in mobile Inline PDF won’t work. Further, Google or other search engines autodetect the PDF files, but whenever the user clicks on those results, the PDF download dialogue will appear instead of opening in a tab. This is a bit unfriendly and most of the users prefer to view the PDF online instead of downloading it at a place and opening.

Is there any solution to this?

NOTE: I’ve seen this topic PDF onebox instead of download, on uploaded files, but the topic ended without any relation to the original question. Hence, this new topic.

2

Thanks for raising this question. I’m also curious to know the answer!

3

Embed a PDF Stored on Google Drive

PDFs display in Mobile as well as Desktop.

(My preferred method so PDFs in iFrames display in any device as responsive)

  1. Share
  2. Copy Share Link
  3. Open Share Link in a New Tab
  4. Click the 3 Vertical Dots in the Top Right Corner
  5. Select Embed Item
  6. Copy the Displayed iFrame Code
  7. Paste it in the Discourse Composer / Editor

Desktop Example…

discourse-pdf-embed-from-google-drive
discourse-pdf-embed-from-google-drive2255×1787 505 KB

Mobile Example…

discourse-pdf-embed-mobile-from-google-drive
discourse-pdf-embed-mobile-from-google-drive1920×1795 343 KB

4

Inline PDF does not work for me on desktop either.

I’m partially successful displaying PDFs inline when adding them to FileHelper.inline_images

But then a parameter “inline=1” is needed:

This could be added in some theme-component (Inline PDF Previews).

I would like to learn a clean way to switch discourse to serve PDFs with content-disposition: inline using a plugin or a configuration option.

5

I managed to write a small plugin for this purpose:

https://github.com/thoka/discourse-send-pdf-inline