Limitations on opening pdf file in Android

Question

I am trying to opening some pdf from my Android application. I am using an Intent for doing that:

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(url), "application/pdf");
startActivity(intent);

This code works well for some pdf but it fails when I try to open others.

This is the message that Android is showing to me:

There is a problem with the file.

I have to mention that the pdf that are being opened without problems are created with one Crystal Report template and the pdfs that are failing are created with another one.

As opposed, if I open the url of the pdfs that are failing on my browser (on my computer), it does not give to me any error opening them so I guess that maybe there is some limitation on Android that differs from some pdf to another (on Crystal Report template) but I cannot see it.

What limitations exist on opening a pdf file on Android? (Size, some parameters of Crystal Report that are not allowed, etc...)

I have discarded that it could be a size limitation because the pdf files that are giving problems are smaller than the files that do not give any error.

Proves I have done:

• Opening wrong PDFs on browser ~~> OK
• Downloading wrong PDF on mobile phone and open it ~~> OK
• Opening wrong PDFs on APP ~~> Error
• Opening good PDF on APP of the company that PDFs crash ~~> OK

EDIT

I have noticed that I was using http:// protocol but the PDF is on a https:// protocol, so I have changed it on Uri.parse method.

When I made this change, the app crashed and an error was shown on the log:

android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent

Also, I have noticed that the PDFs that does not give to me any error, are in an url with http:// protocol instead of https:// so I guess that https:// protocol can be the problem.

Am I only able to open http:// request on an Intent?

Answer 1

It could be the file failed to be interpret by the Android PDF viewer app. Have you tried to copy/download the exact same file to your Android phone and open from there?

Also, I'd suggest to use IntentChooser for launching the PDF viewer, just to play safe on no PDF viewer installed / giving user option to choose app:

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(url), "application/pdf");
Intent chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(intent, "Open Report");
startActivity(chooserIntent);

Answer 2

I found a workaround to view my PDF on my Android application (but does not allow me to download it after show on the application). If I open my PDF using Google Docs I can open it with my Intent.

This is what I had to add before my url:

https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=

so the final url will be like:

https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=https://myUrl.pdf

Here is the whole code I am using right now:

String url= "https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=https://url.pdf";
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url));
startActivity(intent);

But it is still not enough, because I would like to open it without need of using a third party application. Also, opening PDF with Google Docs is slow and I have to wait too much until the PDF is finally opened.

If anyone knows how to open it with native Android please let me know.

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What happens if I do not open it with Google Docs?

With the same code, but just using my url, instead the added Google Docs url, Android let me choose between two applications: Adobe Acrobat Reader and Google Chrome.

• If I open it with Google Chrome it download the PDF but it is not opened automatically.

• If I open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader, it gives to me the following error:

  The PDF cannot be shown (it cannot be opened)