How to save pdf and serve to browser

[shavo26]

Guys,

Here is my sample code, first for rendering pdf and persisting to database as byte array, and secondly serving file to browser.

 /**
     * Create the pdf by rendering pdf template and returning as byte array
     * @return
     */
    private byte[] createPDF() {
        byte[] bytes = null;
        try {
                renderer.render("/generalInquiryPdf.xhtml");
                DocumentStore doc = DocumentStore.instance();
                if (doc != null) {
                        DocumentData data = doc.getDocumentData("1");
                        ByteArrayDocumentData byteData = null;
                        if (data instanceof ByteArrayDocumentData) {
                                byteData = (ByteArrayDocumentData) data;
                        } else {
                                throw new Exception("Couldnt get the bytes from the pdf document, unknown class " + data.getClass().getName());
                        }
                        bytes = byteData.getData();
                }
        } catch (Exception ex) {
                log.error("Error when trying to get the content of the pdf in bytes with the message #0", ex.getMessage());
                ex.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
        }
        return bytes;
    }

      /**
     * Serve file to the browser
     */
    public void sendFile(byte[] file, String contentType, String filename) throws IOException {
        if (file == null) {
            return;
        }
        FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
        HttpServletResponse servletResponse = (HttpServletResponse) fc.getExternalContext().getResponse();
        if (filename != null) {
            servletResponse.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename=" + filename);
        }
        if (contentType != null) {
            servletResponse.setContentType(contentType);
        }
        ServletOutputStream os = servletResponse.getOutputStream();
        os.write(file);
        fc.responseComplete();
    }
     
     <h:commandLink id="view" value="View"
     action="#{<ComponentName>.sendFile}" />