It Is Possible To Share A File(PDF) Instead Of Url With Navigator.share?

I have a pdf file that is generated from server and I would like to allow the user to share this file via navigator.share. Is it possible to share a file instead of URL? naviga

Solution 1:

Chrome for Android (75+) now supports this feature (called Web Share API Level 2) and hopefully other browsers will follow suit soon.

A demo is available here.

Solution 2:

Chrome 93.0.4570.0 now supports sharing PDF files with Web Share. See https://chromiumdash.appspot.com/commit/7d30d42a018d4aa76fca2896f2903d892b5f5284 and https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1006055

shareButton.onclick = async () => {
  const response = await fetch("https://example.com/files/hello.pdf");
  const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer();

  const pdf = new File([buffer], "hello.pdf", { type: "application/pdf" });
  const files = [pdf];

  // Share PDF file if supported.
  if (navigator.canShare({ files })) await navigator.share({ files });
};

Solution 3:

If you want to share your pdf file, I will suggest that you provide them as direct links to url property. Note that a url of '' refers to the current page URL, just as it would in a link. Any other absolute or relative URL can also be used.