How to open local PDF file in WebView in Android?

Question

I want to open local (SD card) PDF file in a WebView.

I already tried this:

webview = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
webview.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
webview.getSettings().setPluginsEnabled(true);
webview.getSettings().setAllowFileAccess(true);
File file = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + "/test.pdf");

final Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(file);

webview.loadUrl(uri.toString());

But it's still not opening it, so let me know how I can open a PDF in WebView?

Answer 1

I know, this question is old.

But I really like the approach of Xamarin to make use of the pdf.js from Mozilla. It works on older Android versions, you don't need a special PDF Viewer app for this and you can easily display a PDF inside of your apps views hierarchy.

Git for this: https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/

Additional default options (like standard zoom): https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/wiki/Viewer-options

Just add the pdfjs files to your Assets directory:

And call it the following way:

// Assuming you got your pdf file:
File file = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + "/test.pdf");

webview = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
WebSettings settings = webview.getSettings();
settings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
settings.setAllowFileAccessFromFileURLs(true);
settings.setAllowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs(true);
settings.setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
webview.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient());
webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=" + file.getAbsolutePath() + "#zoom=page-width");

Cool thing: If you want to reduce the amount of functionalities / controls. Go to the Assets/pdfjs/web/viewer.html file and mark certain controls as hidden. With

style="display: none;"

E.g. If you don't like the right toolbar:

<div id="toolbarViewerRight" style="display: none;">...</div>

Update

'URL scheme "file" is not supported'

Might occur for newer versions of pdfjs. With version 1.8.188 this error does not appear.