Display PDF on browser

Question

I want to display a PDF file on browser which is store on our server. Here is my code :-

$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].folder_name.'/resources/uploads/pdf/pdf_label_'.$order['id'].'.pdf';

$filename = 'pdf_label_'.$order['id'].'.pdf';

$file = $path;
$filename = $filename;

  header('Content-type: application/pdf');
  header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename="' . $filename . '"');
  header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
  header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');
  @readfile($file);

But it returns below output on browser :

%PDF-1.4 % 5 0 obj >stream

PDF File to show :

I am doing this on view of codeignter.

What I am doing wrong ? Please help me on this. thanks in advance

EDIT :-

Im doing something like below :

foreach($orders as $order){

$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].folder_name.'/resources/uploads/pdf/pdf_label_'.$order['id'].'.pdf';

$filename = 'pdf_label_'.$order['id'].'.pdf';

$file = $path;
$filename = $filename;

  header('Content-type: application/pdf');
  header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename="' . $filename . '"');
  header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
  header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');
  echo file_get_contents($file);

  }

So how can I show more than one file on browser ?

Edit 2 :-

So as per the answer below I have to use phpmerger to merge multiple PDF file and display into the browser. I gone through this website http://pdfmerger.codeplex.com/ but unable to use into codeignter. Can anyone please help me to use this phpmerger inside my codeingter

Solution 1

you can use PDF Merger library to achive your goals. Here is the link to original library (outdated). Prefer myokyawhtun fork which is maintained

and a sample code will be as following

include 'PDFMerger.php';
$pdf = new PDFMerger;
$pdf->addPDF('path_to_pdf/one.pdf', '1, 3, 4')  //include file1 - pages 1,3,4
    ->addPDF('path_to_pdf/two.pdf', '1-2')      //include file2 -  pages 1 to 2
    ->addPDF('path_to_pdf/three.pdf', 'all')    //include file3 - all pages
    ->merge('browser', 'test.pdf');  // OUTPUT : make sure you choose browser mode here.

Supported modes - browser, file, download and string.

---

Edit : As i can see you have tagged CI you can put PDFMerger.php in applications/libraries. and load it in autoload.php or in controller

and then can use it like $this->pdfmerger->addPDF() and merge() functions.

Solution 2

$filePath="file path here";
$filename="file name here";
header('Content-type:application/pdf');
header('Content-disposition: inline; filename="'.$filename.'"');
header('content-Transfer-Encoding:binary');
header('Accept-Ranges:bytes');
@ readfile($filePath);

please try this code i hope it will working as i try.

Solution 3

Use exit after readfile:

$filepath = 'your-path/demo.pdf';
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');
header(sprintf("Content-disposition: inline;filename=%s", basename($filepath)));

@readfile($filepath);
exit;

ps. @ before readfile it's used to suppress errors, maybe remove it in dev mode.

Solution 4

Instead of using

@readfile($file);

Use

echo file_get_contents($file);

Or ommit the @

Solution 5

my recommended library for embedding PDFs is PDFObject. Check it out here: http://pdfobject.com/

View more solutions

Comments

[Rakesh Shetty]

thanks and i tried that file_get_contents($file);exit; it shows the pdf file but actually there is more than one pdf file and im using foreach to display pdf file. So when I remove exit; from file_get_contents($file); it shows %PDF-1.4 % 5 0 obj >stream

[RichardBernards]

You cannot do multiple downloads at once (not without invoking the code multiple times from javascript via AJAX or something like that)

[RichardBernards]

I think I told you how to achieve it in the previous comment

[Rakesh Shetty]

can I do something like this :- include_once($path); ?

[RichardBernards]

@RakeshShetty No, you have to invoke the script multiple times... Via AJAX from the frontend of your application: check stackoverflow.com/a/2339452/1857053

[Rakesh Shetty]

preferred solution create a script to zip the files - should I create a zip folder for my pdf files and then display the result as per your code ?

[Rakesh Shetty]

yes im using CI so as you said I have to include pdfmerger.php inside applications/libraries but there is another folder fpdf and fpdi should I upload it into the same location ? and How can I load the merger in my controller ? Can you please help me how to use phpmerger in CI

[Karan Thakkar]

copy PDFMerger.php in application/libraries. in autoload.php include $autoload['libraries'] = array('pdfmerger',........ and then you can use it in CI as i have mentioned in answer :) @RakeshShetty

[Rakesh Shetty]

I tried and it is loaded but now it is throwing error - require_once(fpdf/fpdi.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory

[Karan Thakkar]

didn't copied fpdf and fpdi folders ??? after copying you'l get Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated if you are using PHP 5+ you need to remove & from those lines as its been deprecated in PHP 5+. @RakeshShetty

[Rakesh Shetty]

I have copied on system/libraires location

[Karan Thakkar]

it should be application/libraries as i mentioned. copy php file and both the folders

[James]

filename="'.$filename.'"'); could be filename="'.$filename); (sorry all those quotes make my head fuzzy)

[mickmackusa]

@James that would cause an unclosed double quoted string. Please deal with your head fuzziness in a different way -- curly braces perhaps if you don't like dots.

[mickmackusa]

@arshad please add some explanation to your code-only answer if you are able.