Chrome browser fails to download generated PDF file with error "Failed - Network error"

Issue:

In TIBCO JasperReports® Server, the report can be previewed and exported to PDF successfully in a new browser tab (URL: https://server:port/jasperserver-pro/flow.html/flowFile/<report>.pdf). From this browser tab, the downloading of the PDF report fails with the error "Failed - Network error" or "Failed - Server Problem". The browser page then displays the following:   

Error Message

An id is required to lookup a FlowDefinition (Error UID: 5b0e7de7-3bd9-4b4b-8e2f-16aee6610d43)

Error Trace

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: An id is required to lookup a FlowDefinition
        at org.springframework.util.Assert.hasText(Assert.java:181) 
        at org.springframework.webflow.definition.registry.FlowDefinitionRegistryImpl.getFlowDefinition(FlowDefinitionRegistryImpl.java:55)
        ...
        ...

The issue was observed using Chrome and Edge browsers but not Firefox where the PDF download was successful.

Solution:

TIBCO JasperReports® Server is responsible for the generating of the PDF report but the downloading of the generated PDF report is performed by the browser.

Given that the PDF download failed with Chrome (and Edge) and not Firefox may be caused by chromium-based browsers and its internal PDF viewer. 

The following are possible options the user can take to workaround this problem :

1> In the browser tab of the generated PDF, first click on "Print" and then "Save As PDF" option.
 
2> Enable pop-up download prompt to change the default behavior of opening in a new Chrome tab. In the Chrome browser, go to :

Settings -> Privacy and security -> Additional content settings -> PDF documents

and change the default behaviour from "Open PDFs in Chrome" to "Download PDFs"

3> Install a different PDF viewer as an alternative to the built-in PDF viewer (such as Adobe Acrobat Reader chrome extension)

Note: The behavior changed in TIBCO JasperReports® Server 7.9 where it automatically generates a pop-up download prompt for the user to save the PDF to the local drive upon exporting the report to PDF.

Related Articles:

https://superuser.com/questions/1041849/failed-server-problem-when-trying-to-save-a-pdf-in-preview-in-google-chrome