As many StackOverflow questions and answers hint at, there is no built-in support for reading PDF files on Android, which is kind of a shame, especially since iOS has native support for the format. The vision must have been that user’s will select their own favorite PDF reader app, and then read all other apps’ PDF files through that reader app.

However, as an app developer, you cannot make assumptions on which PDF reader apps exist on a user’s device – you cannot even assume that one is installed! Several StackOverflow posts suggest redirecting the user to Google Drive’s (formerly Google Docs) online HTML PDF viewer. This solution is kind of bulky though, and doesn’t work as well as using a native app (Like Adobe Reader or other PDF reader apps).

This inspired me to come up with a hybrid solution for reading that checks if a PDF reader app is installed and does the follwing:

If a reader is installed, download the PDF file to the device and start a PDF reader app

If no reader is installed, ask the user if he wants to view the PDF file online through Google Drive

NOTE! This solution uses the Android DownloadManager class, which was introduced in API9 (Android 2.3 or Gingerbread). This means that it doesn’t work on Android 2.2 or earlier.

The main method for the code is PDFTools.showPDFUrl( Context context, String pdfUrl );

The code can be found on GitHub or just right here:

public class PDFTools { private static final String GOOGLE_DRIVE_PDF_READER_PREFIX = "http://drive.google.com/viewer?url="; private static final String PDF_MIME_TYPE = "application/pdf"; private static final String HTML_MIME_TYPE = "text/html"; /** * If a PDF reader is installed, download the PDF file and open it in a reader. * Otherwise ask the user if he/she wants to view it in the Google Drive online PDF reader.<br /> * <br /> * <b>BEWARE:</b> This method * @param context * @param pdfUrl * @return */ public static void showPDFUrl( final Context context, final String pdfUrl ) { if ( isPDFSupported( context ) ) { downloadAndOpenPDF(context, pdfUrl); } else { askToOpenPDFThroughGoogleDrive( context, pdfUrl ); } } /** * Downloads a PDF with the Android DownloadManager and opens it with an installed PDF reader app. * @param context * @param pdfUrl */ @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.GINGERBREAD) public static void downloadAndOpenPDF(final Context context, final String pdfUrl) { // Get filename final String filename = pdfUrl.substring( pdfUrl.lastIndexOf( "/" ) + 1 ); // The place where the downloaded PDF file will be put final File tempFile = new File( context.getExternalFilesDir( Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS ), filename ); if ( tempFile.exists() ) { // If we have downloaded the file before, just go ahead and show it. openPDF( context, Uri.fromFile( tempFile ) ); return; } // Show progress dialog while downloading final ProgressDialog progress = ProgressDialog.show( context, context.getString( R.string.pdf_show_local_progress_title ), context.getString( R.string.pdf_show_local_progress_content ), true ); // Create the download request DownloadManager.Request r = new DownloadManager.Request( Uri.parse( pdfUrl ) ); r.setDestinationInExternalFilesDir( context, Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS, filename ); final DownloadManager dm = (DownloadManager) context.getSystemService( Context.DOWNLOAD_SERVICE ); BroadcastReceiver onComplete = new BroadcastReceiver() { @Override public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) { if ( !progress.isShowing() ) { return; } context.unregisterReceiver( this ); progress.dismiss(); long downloadId = intent.getLongExtra( DownloadManager.EXTRA_DOWNLOAD_ID, -1 ); Cursor c = dm.query( new DownloadManager.Query().setFilterById( downloadId ) ); if ( c.moveToFirst() ) { int status = c.getInt( c.getColumnIndex( DownloadManager.COLUMN_STATUS ) ); if ( status == DownloadManager.STATUS_SUCCESSFUL ) { openPDF( context, Uri.fromFile( tempFile ) ); } } c.close(); } }; context.registerReceiver( onComplete, new IntentFilter( DownloadManager.ACTION_DOWNLOAD_COMPLETE ) ); // Enqueue the request dm.enqueue( r ); } /** * Show a dialog asking the user if he wants to open the PDF through Google Drive * @param context * @param pdfUrl */ public static void askToOpenPDFThroughGoogleDrive( final Context context, final String pdfUrl ) { new AlertDialog.Builder( context ) .setTitle( R.string.pdf_show_online_dialog_title ) .setMessage( R.string.pdf_show_online_dialog_question ) .setNegativeButton( R.string.pdf_show_online_dialog_button_no, null ) .setPositiveButton( R.string.pdf_show_online_dialog_button_yes, new OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) { openPDFThroughGoogleDrive(context, pdfUrl); } }) .show(); } /** * Launches a browser to view the PDF through Google Drive * @param context * @param pdfUrl */ public static void openPDFThroughGoogleDrive(final Context context, final String pdfUrl) { Intent i = new Intent( Intent.ACTION_VIEW ); i.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(GOOGLE_DRIVE_PDF_READER_PREFIX + pdfUrl ), HTML_MIME_TYPE ); context.startActivity( i ); } /** * Open a local PDF file with an installed reader * @param context * @param localUri */ public static final void openPDF(Context context, Uri localUri ) { Intent i = new Intent( Intent.ACTION_VIEW ); i.setDataAndType( localUri, PDF_MIME_TYPE ); context.startActivity( i ); } /** * Checks if any apps are installed that supports reading of PDF files. * @param context * @return */ public static boolean isPDFSupported( Context context ) { Intent i = new Intent( Intent.ACTION_VIEW ); final File tempFile = new File( context.getExternalFilesDir( Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS ), "test.pdf" ); i.setDataAndType( Uri.fromFile( tempFile ), PDF_MIME_TYPE ); return context.getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities( i, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY ).size() > 0; } }