Question

I have a pdf file attachment saved in the cloud. The file is attached using attachment_fu. All I do to display it in the view is:

<%= image_tag @model.pdf_attachment.public_filename %>

When I load the page with this code in the browser, it does what I want: it displays the attached pdf file.

But only on Mac.

On Windows, browsers will display a broken image placeholder. Chrome’s Developer Tools report: “Resource interpreted as image but transferred with MIME type application/pdf.”

I also tried sending the file from controller:

in PdfAttachmentsController:

def send_pdf_attachment
  pdf_attachment = PdfAttachment.find params[:id]
  send_file pdf_attachment.public_filename,
    :type => pdf_attachment.content_type,
    :file_name => pdf_attachment.filename,
    :disposition => 'inline'
end

in routes.rb:

map.send_pdf_attachment '/pdf_attachments/send_pdf_attachment/:id', 
  :controller => 'pdf_attachments', 
  :action => 'send_pdf_attachment'

and in the view:

<%= send_pdf_attachment_path @model.pdf_attachment %>
or
<%= image_tag( send_pdf_attachment_path @model.pdf_attachment ) %>

And that doesn’t display the file on Mac (I didn’t try on Windows), it displays the path:

pdf_attachments/send_pdf_attachment/35

What do I do to properly display a pdf file inline?

Answer 1

My guess would be that it’s not displaying because you’re trying to display a pdf in an image tag. It’s not an image it’s a pdf.
Either display it in an iframe or put it in a link that displays just the pdf using send_file and a disposition of inline.

I create pdfs with the princely plugin and they display inline using this method.