One of the most requested features in Android is the ability to
display a PDF document within a WebView. However, the WebView does not contain
a PDF plugin that allow you to display a PDF document. One solution is to use
an Intent object to launch a third-party app (such as Adobe Acrobat) which can
handle the PDF document. However, this will transfer control over to the
thrid-party app.
If you insists on displaying the PDF document within your own
activity using a WebView, you can use the following trick. You can use Google
Docs to open your PDF document and then
load the URL of Google Docs using the WebView.
@Override
protected void
onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
//setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
WebView
webView=new WebView(MainActivity.this);
webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
webView.getSettings().setPluginState(PluginState.ON);
//---you need
this to prevent the webview from
// launching another
browser when a url
// redirection
occurs---
webView.setWebViewClient(new
Callback());
String pdfURL =
"http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37098169/Course%20Brochures/AND101.pdf";
webView.loadUrl(
"http://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url="
+ pdfURL);
setContentView(webView);
}
private class
Callback extends WebViewClient {
@Override
public boolean
shouldOverrideUrlLoading(
WebView
view, String url) {
return(false);
}
}
The loaded PDF document will look something like this:
Remember to add in the android.permission.INTERNET permission.
Come join me in the Android Post-Conference workshop on 31 May 2013 at DevTeach 2013, Toronto.
