Open online pdf file through android intent?

Question

Currently I have a pdf url, and I would like to simply using the intent to open it, however, it does not work if I put the url in intent

My code is like this, it always throw ActivityNotFoundException error

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW); intent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(law.url), "application/pdf");  try {     startActivity(intent); } catch (ActivityNotFoundException e){     Utility.showErrorDialog(         ctx,ctx.getResources().getString(R.string.sys_in,          ctx.getResources().getString(R.string.err_no_pdf_reader),          ctx.getResources().getString(R.string.close)); } 

Also I tried the goolge doc approach but my client reject this, so I am not using this method

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);  intent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse("http://docs.google.com/viewer?url="  + publish.get(Integer.parseInt((String) view.getTag())).pdfURL), "text/html");   ctx.startActivity(intent); 

Thanks for help

Log cat error Update

04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161): android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=http://oshc.zizsoft.com/oshc_testing.pdf typ=application/pdf } 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.app.Instrumentation.checkStartActivityResult(Instrumentation.java:1568) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.app.Instrumentation.execStartActivity(Instrumentation.java:1439) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Activity.java:3356) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Activity.java:3317) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity.startActivityFromFragment(FragmentActivity.java:848) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.support.v4.app.Fragment.startActivity(Fragment.java:878) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at com.example.oshpedia.Fragment.Shelf$4.onItemClick(Shelf.java:142) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at it.sephiroth.android.library.widget.AdapterView.performItemClick(AdapterView.java:299) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at it.sephiroth.android.library.widget.AbsHListView.performItemClick(AbsHListView.java:972) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at it.sephiroth.android.library.widget.AbsHListView$PerformClick.run(AbsHListView.java:2511) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at it.sephiroth.android.library.widget.AbsHListView$1.run(AbsHListView.java:3200) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:615) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4882) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:789) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:556) 04-23 18:18:50.487: E/AndroidRuntime(17161):    at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method) 

Answer 1

You can view or download the pdf by either of the two ways i.e by opening it in device in-built browser or in the webview by embedding it in your app.

To open the pdf in browser,

Intent browserIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(pdf_url)); startActivity(browserIntent); 

Instead to open in webview,

 WebView webView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView1);  webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);  webView.loadUrl(pdf_url); 

Answer 2

Best practice is wrapping your Intent to Chooser before starting. It provides users with built-in application selection dialog and lets avoid ActivityNotFoundException

Here a little example:

Intent browserIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW); browserIntent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(msg.getData()), Constants.MIME_PDF);  Intent chooser = Intent.createChooser(browserIntent, getString(R.string.chooser_title)); chooser.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK); // optional  startActivity(chooser); 

Where Constants.MIME_PDF is defined as String value "application/pdf".

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It is possible to ask PackageManager is this Intent has appropriate handling Activity or not.

public static boolean isActivityForIntentAvailable(Context context, Intent intent) {     final PackageManager packageManager = context.getPackageManager();     List list = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(intent, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);     return list.size() > 0; }