Displaying PDF Files in a Browser Using PHP and Perl

Background:

In order to track clicks and conceal the true location of PDF documents, you desire a solution to display PDF files within a user's browser. Despite extensive internet searches, you have not found a straightforward approach.

Solution with PHP:

header('Content-type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename=example.pdf');
@readfile('path/to/example.pdf');

Solution with Perl:

open(PDF, 'path/to/example.pdf') or die "Could not open PDF [$!]";
binmode PDF;
my $output = do { local $/;  };
close(PDF);

print "Content-Type: application/pdf\n";
print "Content-Length: " . length($output) . "\n\n";
print $output;

Troubleshooting:

• Missing loading progress bar in Adobe Reader X: Ensure that the 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary' header is set.
• Additional browser considerations: Browsers may have settings that force PDF downloads or open them in external applications.

Finalized PHP Code:

$file = './path/to/example.pdf';
$filename = 'Custom file name for example.pdf';

header('Content-type: application/pdf');
header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename="' . $filename . '"');
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');

@readfile($file);

This code should enable the display of PDF files within a user's browser, while allowing you to track clicks and maintain the desired level of privacy.