PDF file display on the browser

Question

Hi,
I am using struts DispatchAction to display the existing file (on the server) on the web browser. My code works on FireFox and Google Chrome. But displays empty screen when executed on IE. Please refer to the Action class and kindly help me out what am I missing in the code inorder to work on all browsers.
Page Access URL: http://localhost:8080/pdfWeb/showpdf.do?action=displayPdf
Action Class
public class BaseAction extends DispatchAction {
     public ActionForward displayPdf(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form,
               HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
               throws Exception {
     String filepath = "/test/pdf/sample.pdf";
     //For Local:
     String baseFolder = "/Users/raghu/Documents/Shared/personal/Final_Out";
     String contentType = getServlet().getServletContext().getMimeType(filepath);
     response.setContentType(contentType);
          //New
     response.setHeader("Expires", "0");
          response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
          response.setHeader("Pragma", "public");
OutputStream out = response.getOutputStream();
byte[] pdfContent = this.loadFile(baseFolder + filepath);
out.write(pdfContent, 0, pdfContent.length);
if (out != null) {
out.close();
          return null;
     public static byte[] loadFile(String sourcePath) {
     byte[] output = null;
     InputStream inputStream = null;
          try {
               inputStream = new FileInputStream(sourcePath);
               output = readFully(inputStream);
               if (inputStream != null) {
                    inputStream.close();
          catch(IOException ioex) {
               //Handle Exception
          return output;
}

Answer 1

We've had a number of IE related issues displaying PDF files. The first is that IE, rather than paying much attention to Mime type, still looks for extension names in the URL. Nasty as it sounds, it's sometimes necessary to ensure that your URL ends in ".pdf". It may be enough to append "&x=.pdf" onto the URL (which should have no significant impact).
(Another is that some versions can't write a new PDF to an existing window already showing an old one).