How to implement react-pdf with print function

Question

I would like to use react-pdf to display the PDF and develop a printing function for direct printing (like using window.print());

The REST server is developed using Jersey.

The PDF will generate from server and return to React client using Jersey with return type is application/pdf. React client will display the PDF using react-pdf.

I don't want to declare the URL path in "file" because this will retrieve the PDF from server again if the React state changed and triggered re-render. Also, I need to develop a print function to print the PDF displayed (Because the PDF content may change if retrieve the PDF again from server)

Below show my code:

Server:

@Override
@GET
@Path("/pdf")
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_PDF_VALUE)
public Response testPdf() throws Exception {

    File file = new File("C:\\Desktop\\test.pdf");
    FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(file);
    
    ResponseBuilder response = Response.ok((Object) fileInputStream);
    response.type("application/pdf");
    response.header("Content-Disposition", "filename=test.pdf");
    
    return response.build();
}

Client

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { Document, Page } from 'react-pdf';
import axios from 'axios';

class MyApp extends Component {
    state = {
        numPages: null,
        pageNumber: 1,
        pdfContent: null
    }

    componentDidMount(){
        var that = this;

        axios.get("url\Pdf").then((response) => {
             that.setState({pdfContent:response.data});
        }).catch((error) => {
             console.warn(error);
        });
    }

    onDocumentLoadSuccess = ({ numPages }) => {
        this.setState({ numPages });
    }

    printHandler(){
        window.print();
    }

    render() {
        const { pageNumber, numPages } = this.state;

        return (
            <div>
                <Document
                    file={this.state.pdfContent}
                    onLoadSuccess={this.onDocumentLoadSuccess}
                >
                    <Page pageNumber={pageNumber} />
                </Document>
                <p>Page {pageNumber} of {numPages}</p>

                <button onClick={() => this.setState(prevState => ({ 
                        pageNumber: prevState.pageNumber + 1 }))}>Next page</button>
                <button onClick={() => this.setState(prevState => ({ 
                        pageNumber: prevState.pageNumber - 1 }))}>Prev Page</button>

                <button onClick={this.printHandler}/>
            </div>
        );
    }
}

I want to get the PDF only one time and display the PDF using react-pdf. Also, I want to print the displayed PDF.

I tried to convert the response.data to base64 followed this line because not success: (this will lose the pdf content) Encode PDF to base64 in ReactJS

Code like:

    componentDidMount(){
        var that = this;

        axios.get("url\Pdf").then((response) => {
            let reader = new FileReader();
            var file = new Blob([response.data], { type: 'application/pdf' });

            reader.onloadend = () => {
                that.setState({
                    base64Pdf:reader.result
                });
            }
            reader.readAsDataURL(file);
        }).catch((error) => {
             console.warn(error);
        });
    }

Anyone can give me some suggestion? Or any better way to reach my goal?

Thanks

Answer 1

Update on receiving the error message from the back-end:

When a request fails, we receive a JSON object from the back-end which contains the error message. The problem is that when we are forcing to receive the response in Blob format: responseType: 'blob' - no matter if the request fails or not, we receive a Blob Object. So, I was thinking about changing the responseType in the function provided from axios: transformResponse, but unfortunately, we do not have access to 'responseType' object, only to the headers. Here: https://github.com/axios/axios/pull/1155 there is an open issue about converting accordingly to responseType, it is still not resolved.

So, my way of resolving this problem is using fetch instead of axios. Here is an example:

fetch('here.is.your/endpoint', {
            method: 'POST', // specifying the method request
            body: JSON.stringify(request), // specifying the body
            headers: {
                "Content-Type": "application/json"
            }
        }
    ).then((response) => {
        if (response.ok) { // checks if the response is with status 200 (successful)
            return response.blob().then(blob => {
                const name = 'Report.pdf';
                saveAs(blob, name);
            });
        } else {
            return response.json().then((jsonError) => {
                this.setState({
                    modalMessage: jsonError.message // access the error message returned from the back-end
                });
            });
        }
    }).catch(function (error) {
        this.setState({
            modalMessage: "Error in data type received." // general handler
        });
    });

I hope this helps!