Save base64 string as PDF at client side with JavaScript
JavascriptInternet ExplorerFirefoxPdfBase64Javascript Problem Overview
So here my problem: I have a pdf file as a base64 String that i am getting from the server. I would like to use this string to either display the PDF directly to the browser or give it a option of "Save as..." when clicking on a link. Here the code i am using:
<!doctype>
<html>
<head>
<title>jsPDF</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../libs/base64.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../libs/sprintf.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../jspdf.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function demo1() {
jsPDF.init();
jsPDF.addPage();
jsPDF.text(20, 20, 'Hello world!');
jsPDF.text(20, 30, 'This is client-side Javascript, pumping out a PDF.');
// Making Data URI
var out = jsPDF.output();
var url = 'data:application/pdf;base64,' + Base64.encode(out);
document.location.href = url;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<a href="javascript:demo1()">Run Code</a>
</body>
</html>
Its working fine with Chrome and Safari. Firefox does recognize the pdf but does not display it as FF requires extensions to be present but the data-URI has none in this case. The reason I'm insisting here, if chrome and safari get it to work, then there has to be a solution for FF and IE
I know there are a few relevant questions to this but not really the exact one and now also a bit old ones. I know a workaround would be to have the pdf generated at server side but I would like to generate it at client side.
So please intelligent folks, is it possible through some hacks or additional JS download plugins?
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
You can create an anchor like the one showed below to download the base64 pdf:
<a download=pdfTitle href=pdfData title='Download pdf document' />
where pdfData is your base64 encoded pdf like "data:application/pdf;base64,JVBERi0xLjQKJcOkw7zDtsOfCjIgMCBvYmoKPDwvTGVuZ3RoIDMgMCBSL0ZpbHRlci9GbGF0ZURlY29kZT4+CnN0cmVhbQp4nO1cyY4ktxG911fUWUC3kjsTaBTQ1Ytg32QN4IPgk23JMDQ2LB/0+2YsZAQzmZk1PSPIEB..."
Solution 2 - Javascript
you can use this function to download file from base64.
function downloadPDF(pdf) {
const linkSource = `data:application/pdf;base64,${pdf}`;
const downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
const fileName = "abc.pdf";
downloadLink.href = linkSource;
downloadLink.download = fileName;
downloadLink.click();}
This code will made an anchor tag with href and download file. if you want to use button then you can call click method on your button click.
i hope this will help of you thanks
Solution 3 - Javascript
You should be able to download the file using
window.open("data:application/pdf;base64," + Base64.encode(out));
Solution 4 - Javascript
I know this question is old, but also wanted to accomplish this and came across it while looking. For internet explorer I used code from here to save a Blob. To create a blob from the base64 string there were many results on this site, so its not my code I just can't remember the specific source:
function b64toBlob(b64Data, contentType) {
contentType = contentType || '';
var sliceSize = 512;
b64Data = b64Data.replace(/^[^,]+,/, '');
b64Data = b64Data.replace(/\s/g, '');
var byteCharacters = window.atob(b64Data);
var byteArrays = [];
for (var offset = 0; offset < byteCharacters.length; offset += sliceSize) {
var slice = byteCharacters.slice(offset, offset + sliceSize);
var byteNumbers = new Array(slice.length);
for (var i = 0; i < slice.length; i++) {
byteNumbers[i] = slice.charCodeAt(i);
}
var byteArray = new Uint8Array(byteNumbers);
byteArrays.push(byteArray);
}
var blob = new Blob(byteArrays, {type: contentType});
return blob;
Using the linked filesaver:
if (window.saveAs) { window.saveAs(blob, name); }
else { navigator.saveBlob(blob, name); }
Solution 5 - Javascript
dataURItoBlob(dataURI) {
const byteString = window.atob(dataURI);
const arrayBuffer = new ArrayBuffer(byteString.length);
const int8Array = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);
for (let i = 0; i < byteString.length; i++) {
int8Array[i] = byteString.charCodeAt(i);
}
const blob = new Blob([int8Array], { type: 'application/pdf'});
return blob;
}
// data should be your response data in base64 format
const blob = this.dataURItoBlob(data);
const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
// to open the PDF in a new window
window.open(url, '_blank');
Solution 6 - Javascript
You will do not need any library for this. JavaScript support this already. Here is my end-to-end solution.
const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('GET', 'your-end-point', true);
xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8');
xhr.responseType = 'blob';
xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
if (window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
window.navigator.msSaveBlob(this.response, "fileName.pdf");
} else {
const downloadLink = window.document.createElement('a');
const contentTypeHeader = xhr.getResponseHeader("Content-Type");
downloadLink.href = window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([this.response], { type: contentTypeHeader }));
downloadLink.download = "fileName.pdf";
document.body.appendChild(downloadLink);
downloadLink.click();
document.body.removeChild(downloadLink);
}
}
};
xhr.send(null);
This also work for .xls or .zip file. You just need to change file name to fileName.xls or fileName.zip. This depends on your case.