How to get generated HTML file to display in new window from FileDownloadActionListener?

Question

Hi,
I am using Jdeveloper version 11.1.1.5.
I have a use case where the user can produce a report upon the click of a command button. They can generate 3 types of reports, HTML, PDF or Excel depending on which option they select in the radio buttons preceding the 'generate report' command button.
The files are created in the background (XML file created based on View Objects which is then transformed using the relevant API for the report type and then produces a file which is held in servers temp directory) and is served out through a FileDownloadActionListener component programmatically, which itself is surrounded by a Command Link with visibility property set to 'false' (as per this blog:http://www.jobinesh.com/2010/01/customizing-execution-of-to-validate.html).
Everything works fine in that the reports generate correctly and after clicking on the 'generate report' button the browser's 'Open/Save' dialog box appears asking the user what they would like to do with the file. I am using Internet Explorer as that is what most of the client users will be using.
The issue I'm having is as follows. For PDF and Excel types when the user clicks on 'Open' the file opens in separate Adobe Reader or MS Excel application windows respectively, which is as expected and required. However, the HTML document opens within the same browser window within which the application is running and from where the 'generate report' button was clicked. The issues this presents is that if the user closes the browser window displaying the report then they will need to open a new window to re-establish connection to the application. If they click the browser 'back' button then it takes them back to the original page but not in exactly the same state as it was before the report was launched i.e. there are some components missing and the page doesn't display correctly.
Is there another way for me to achieve this or is it even possible? I tried setting the 'useWindow' property of the invisible command link surrounding the FileDownloadActionListener to 'true' which didn't work. I tried to surround it with a Go Link instead of a command link but that gave me NullPointerException's, I think because you can only use a component which has an 'Action' property?
I appreciate your assistance as always.

Answer 1

Hi,
  I'm not sure if this solution is appropriate to your situation, but I had the same problem with trying to redirect from a commandLink to a new window.  In the method that is called by the links action I used the following:
// Open the url in a separate browser window
ExtendedRenderKitService erks =
  Service.getRenderKitService(fctx, ExtendedRenderKitService.class);
StringBuilder script = new StringBuilder();
script.append("window.open('" + url + "', '', '');");
erks.addScript(FacesContext.getCurrentInstance(), script.toString());