Trying to solve a export pdf problem

[Nick]

Hi guys! I've got a problem when I export a report to pdf in my web app. I've tried using two different codes:

The first code (copied from the samples in the JasperReports project home site) was:

Code:

File reportFile = new File(application.getRealPath("/reportes/reporteDeIngresosCiudad.jasper"«»));
JasperPrint jasperPrint = JasperFillManager.fillReport(new FileInputStream(reportFile), parameters, conn);
JRPdfExporter exporterPdf = new JRPdfExporter(); 
response.setContentType("application/pdf"«»);
ServletOutputStream outputStream = response.getOutputStream();
exporterPdf.setParameter(JRExporterParameter.JASPER_PRINT, jasperPrint);
exporterPdf.setParameter(JRExporterParameter.OUTPUT_STREAM, outputStream); 
exporterPdf.exportReport();
outputStream.flush();
outputStream.close();

And the second code (copied from the forum and currently used) is:

Code:

[code]File reportFile = new File(application.getRealPath("/reportes/reporteDeIngresosCiudad.jasper"«»)); JasperPrint jasperPrint = JasperFillManager.fillReport(new FileInputStream(reportFile), parameters, conn); byte[] bytes = JasperExportManager.exportReportToPdf(jasperPrint); response.setContentType("application/pdf"«»); response.setContentLength(bytes.length); ServletOutputStream outputStream = response.getOutputStream(); outputStream.write(bytes, 0, bytes.length); outputStream.flush(); outputStream.close();

The codes works fine, but when the result pdf file has a small size (I think) the result page is blank.

Pd. I'm using: iReports 1.2.7; JDeveloper 10.1.2; Acrobat Reader 5.0; Internet Explorer 6

Please help me.

[rafa.ferreira]

Hummmm you have something in your BD?

 

this connection is alive? open? working?

 

You have any parameter?

 

You have anything else information more then the results of your query?

 

[]'s

Rafael

[Nick]

Hi! Sorry, not sure about what you want to know. Like I said before, I use a outputStream to show the generated report in pdf format, because I don't want to create a file for each generated report (that's no efficient I think).

May I forgot saying that when I get a blank page (instead of my report), I press F5 button to refresh the blank page and the report appears, but that's not a the true solution, right? Anyway, that means that the jasper is compiled and generated correctly, but it is not showed when I export it.

Also, the report query can return from just one row to hundreds of rows. I'm almost sure that I have a blank page as result when the query returns a small number of rows, so the pdf result size is small too. I mean that the IExplorer or the Acrobat has a kind of bug when I try to show a small size file in a outputStream. May I have to set another parameter in the code posted before.

I'll appreciate your help!

Pd. So sorry about my english language.

[jjjj]

I guess you ran into the same problem than I did with Internet Explorer.

 

This Browser involves the file extension to recognize a specific file type. Which makes it difficult to get a pdf shown in the IE.

 

Usually you could set the Content-Disposition header to set the filetype that the browser suggests on saving the file.

 

But even then IE ignores it.

 

The solution:

name whatever URL you're calling to display the PDF as something ending with .pdf

 

I for myself renamed my Servlet producing the output as myServlet.pdf in the url-mapping in web.xml of the application. That worked.

 

-J

[Nick]

Hi jjjj! I'm starting to learn all of this things. Could you add the code I have to put in the web.xml file of my application, please?

Thanks for your help!

[jjjj]

Hi Nick,

 

Sorry for that.

Let me try to write down some concrete steps.

 

1) I assume you already have a web.xml because you want to have your Output from a Servlet.

Go into that web.xml.

You have defined your Servlet with the following tags:

 

<servlet>

<servlet-name>[YourServlet]</servlet-name>

<servlet-class>[YourServletClass]</servlet-class>

</servlet>

 

and mapped it to a URL like this:

 

<servlet-mapping>

<servlet-name>[YourServlet]</servlet-name>

<url-pattern>[YourServletURL]</url-pattern>

</servlet-mapping>

 

But Internet Explorer expects that the file that it should display has a special extension appropriate for the file type (MIME). In this case, when you want to display a PDF file, IE expects that the URL ends with ".pdf" indicating a PDF file.

 

What you have to do:

change that url-pattern thing into:

 

<servlet-mapping>

<servlet-name>[YourServlet]</servlet-name>

<url-pattern>[YourServletURL].pdf</url-pattern>

</servlet-mapping>

 

What it does:

You call your Servlet not by http://SERVER/YourServletURL anymore but by http://SERVER/YourServletURL.pdf

 

As this exact url-pattern is mapped to your Servlet name, your Servlet gets called correctly.

 

One more step:

 

In your service method of the Servlet you have to set the Content-Disposition header by calling:

 

response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=SomeFilename.pdf").

 

Some browsers take this header as suggestion for a filename in case a user wants to save the file. This also presets the extension for that case.

Another Option would be to

 

response.setHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=SomeFilename.pdf")

 

That forces the browser to show up a "Save as" Dialog proposing "SomeFilename.pdf" as filename.

 

I hope I could help you with this

 

-J

[JCOTO]

had the same problem

Update to acrobatReader 8.0

 

try that it fix my problem

[Nick]

Thanks for your replays jjjj and jcoto.

- I'm still trying to implement jjjj's solution cause I was using a jsp page to generate the pdf report. I'm trying use a servlet instead.

- I had already tried upgrading the AcrobatReader version. As you said jcoto, it works. But I have many users for my web application here in La Paz city and other cities too. So it's not a easy way to solve my problem.

Also, it seems JasperReports has a bug here because it depends of the user layer software.

Regards, Nick.