Browse to a PDF in ASP.NET Web Site Folder - asp.net

Question

I have an ASP.NET Core web site running under IIS on a server. I created a folder and want to display any pdf file in that folder in the browser using the url for the site.
https://example.com/pdf/myfile.pdf
folder structure:
c:\inetpub\wwwroot\mysite\pdf\myfile.pdf - contains pdf files
I enabled Directory Browsing for the site in IIS Manager, but I get a 404 error.
I'm on Window Server 2019 IIS version 10.

Answer 1

I would dispense with folder/directory browsing. You can't control the user experince and UI.
And it just we few lines of code to display the files in a web page, and then have a button to display the pdf in the browser.
So our markup is like this:
<h2>Select a PDF file to view</h2>
<br />
<div style="width:45%">
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="false" CssClass="table table-hover">
<Columns>
<asp:BoundField DataField="Date" HeaderText="Date" ItemStyle-Width="100px" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="File Name" HeaderText="ID" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="File Size" HeaderText="Size" ItemStyle-Width="100px" />
<asp:TemplateField>
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:Button ID="cmdDownLoad" runat="server" Text="View"
OnClick="cmdDownLoad_Click"
Row = '<%# Container.DataItemIndex %>'/>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
</div>
And our code to pull files from a folder and shove into the above gridview looks like this:
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
If IsPostBack = False Then
ShowFiles()
End If
End Sub
Sub ShowFiles()
Dim MyTable As New DataTable
MyTable.Columns.Add("Date", GetType(String))
MyTable.Columns.Add("File Size", GetType(String))
MyTable.Columns.Add("File Name", GetType(String))
MyTable.Columns.Add("FullFile", GetType(String))
'Dim strFolder = Server.MapPath("/app_data")
Dim strFolder = "c:\Test4"
Dim MyDir As New DirectoryInfo(strFolder)
Dim MyFiles() As FileInfo = MyDir.GetFiles("*.pdf")
For Each MyFile As FileInfo In MyFiles
Dim oneRow As DataRow = MyTable.Rows.Add
oneRow("Date") = MyFile.LastAccessTime.ToShortDateString
oneRow("File Size") = Int(MyFile.Length / 1024) & " KB"
oneRow("File Name") = MyFile.Name
oneRow("FullFile") = MyFile.FullName
Next
ViewState("MyTable") = MyTable
GridView1.DataSource = MyTable
GridView1.DataBind()
End Sub
The result is thus this:
So, now all we need is the button code to display the pdf in the browser.
This will work:
Protected Sub cmdDownLoad_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Dim btn As Button = sender
Dim RowID = btn.Attributes.Item("Row")
Dim MyTable As DataTable = ViewState("MyTable")
With MyTable.Rows(RowID)
ShowPdf(.Item("File Name"), .Item("FullFile"))
End With
End Sub
Sub ShowPdf(strFileOnlyName As String, strFile As String)
Dim pDFData As Byte()
pDFData = File.ReadAllBytes(strFile)
Response.Buffer = False ' //transmitfile self buffers
Response.Clear()
Response.ClearContent()
Response.ClearHeaders()
Response.AddHeader("Accept-Header", pDFData.Length.ToString())
Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", pDFData.Length.ToString())
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=" & strFileOnlyName)
Response.AddHeader("Expires", "0")
Response.AddHeader("Cache-Control", "private")
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
Response.AddHeader("Accept-Ranges", "bytes")
Response.BinaryWrite(pDFData)
Response.Flush()
Response.End()
End Sub
So you can click on the button - it will display the PDF in the browser. If you hit back, then you back to the grid, and you can then view another file.