how to get a pdf file and open in new tab in asp.net core web api?

Question

I use a ajax to post a data to the api

the api will return a pdf back but the ajax can not open it.

the response is Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=download.pdf
content-type is application/pdf

but the data is %PDF-1.4 5 0 obj <</Type /Page /Parent 3 0 R /Contents 6 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595.44 841.68] >> endobj 6 0 obj

such code not a file

my ajax :

$.ajax({  
url:'/api/mypdf',  
type:'POST',  
method:'POST'  
data:{  
json:''//my json data  
},  
success:function(){  
}  

int the api there is a return File(data.ToArray(),'application/pdf','download.pdf');

I need the post data so I can not use window.location.href='/api/mypdf';

Answer 1

Hi, @mc ,

In your Web Api, I suggest you to return a base64 of type string instead of File or FileStream:

[HttpPost]  
        public string Post(int id)  
        {  
            //....other code.....  
  
            string fileName = @"C:\Users\Admin\xxxxxx\Test.pdf";  
  
            byte[] pdfByteArray = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(fileName);  
  
            string base64EncodedPDF = System.Convert.ToBase64String(pdfByteArray);  
            return base64EncodedPDF;  
  
        }  

Then in ajax success function, you can use this code:

233964-new-text-document.txt

Demo:

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Answer 2

this will make the download a third larger. if that is an issue, another option is for the server return a url to the Ajax. this would require storing the post data and returning a key to the post data in the url.