[php] Laravel - display a PDF file in storage without forcing download?

I have a PDF file stored in app/storage/, and I want authenticated users to be able to view this file. I know that I can make them download it using

return Response::download($path, $filename, $headers);

but I was wondering if there is a way to make them view the file directly in the browser, for example when they are using Google Chrome with the built-in PDF viewer. Any help will be appreciated!

Retrieve File name first then in Blade file use anchor(a) tag like below shown. This would works for image view also.

<a href="{{ asset('storage/admission-document-uploads/' . $filename) }}" target="_black"> view Pdf </a>;

Since Laravel 5.2 you can use File Responses
Basically you can call it like this:

return response()->file($pathToFile);

and it will display files as PDF and images inline in the browser.

I am using Laravel 5.4 and response()->file('path/to/file.ext') to open e.g. a pdf in inline-mode in browsers. This works quite well, but when a user wants to save the file, the save-dialog suggests the last part of the url as filename.

I already tried adding a headers-array like mentioned in the Laravel-docs, but this doesn't seem to override the header set by the file()-method:

return response()->file('path/to/file.ext', [
  'Content-Disposition' => 'inline; filename="'. $fileNameFromDb .'"'
]);

Laravel 5.6.*

$name = 'file.jpg';

store on image or pdf

$file->storeAs('public/', $name );

download image or pdf

return response()->download($name);

view image or pdf

return response()->file($name);

In Laravel 5.5 you can just pass "inline" as the disposition parameter of the download function:

return response()->download('/path/to/file.pdf', 'example.pdf', [], 'inline');

As of laravel 5.5 if the file is stored on a remote storage

return Storage::response($path_to_file);

or if it's locally stored you can also use

return response()->file($path_to_file);

I would recommend using the Storage facade.

Ben Swinburne's answer is absolutely correct - he deserves the points! For me though the answer left be dangling a bit in Laravel 5.1 which made me research — and in 5.2 (which inspired this answer) there's a a new way to do it quickly.

Note: This answer contains hints to support UTF-8 filenames, but it is recommended to take cross platform support into consideration !

In Laravel 5.2 you can now do this:

$pathToFile = '/documents/filename.pdf'; // or txt etc.

// when the file name (display name) is decided by the name in storage,
// remember to make sure your server can store your file name characters in the first place (!)
// then encode to respect RFC 6266 on output through content-disposition
$fileNameFromStorage = rawurlencode(basename($pathToFile));

// otherwise, if the file in storage has a hashed file name (recommended)
// and the display name comes from your DB and will tend to be UTF-8
// encode to respect RFC 6266 on output through content-disposition
$fileNameFromDatabase = rawurlencode('??????????.pdf');

// Storage facade path is relative to the root directory
// Defined as "storage/app" in your configuration by default
// Remember to import Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage
return response()->file(storage_path($pathToFile), [
    'Content-Disposition' => str_replace('%name', $fileNameFromDatabase, "inline; filename=\"%name\"; filename*=utf-8''%name"),
    'Content-Type'        => Storage::getMimeType($pathToFile), // e.g. 'application/pdf', 'text/plain' etc.
]);

And in Laravel 5.1 you can add above method response()->file() as a fallback through a Service Provider with a Response Macro in the boot method (make sure to register it using its namespace in config/app.php if you make it a class). Boot method content:

// Be aware that I excluded the Storage::exists() and / or try{}catch(){}
$factory->macro('file', function ($pathToFile, array $userHeaders = []) use ($factory) {

    // Storage facade path is relative to the root directory
    // Defined as "storage/app" in your configuration by default
    // Remember to import Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage
    $storagePath         = str_ireplace('app/', '', $pathToFile); // 'app/' may change if different in your configuration
    $fileContents        = Storage::get($storagePath);
    $fileMimeType        = Storage::getMimeType($storagePath); // e.g. 'application/pdf', 'text/plain' etc.
    $fileNameFromStorage = basename($pathToFile); // strips the path and returns filename with extension

    $headers = array_merge([
        'Content-Disposition' => str_replace('%name', $fileNameFromStorage, "inline; filename=\"%name\"; filename*=utf-8''%name"),
        'Content-Length'      => strlen($fileContents), // mb_strlen() in some cases?
        'Content-Type'        => $fileMimeType,
    ], $userHeaders);

    return $factory->make($fileContents, 200, $headers);
});

Some of you don't like Laravel Facades or Helper Methods but that choice is yours. This should give you pointers if Ben Swinburne's answer doesn't work for you.

Opinionated note: You shouldn't store files in a DB. Nonetheless, this answer will only work if you remove the Storage facade parts, taking in the contents instead of the path as the first parameter as with the @BenSwinburne answer.

Retrieving Files
$contents = Storage::get('file.jpg');

Downloading Files
return Storage::download('file.jpg');

File URLs
$url = Storage::url('file.jpg');

Ben Swinburne answer was so helpful.

The code below is for those who have their PDF file in database like me.

$pdf = DB::table('exportfiles')->select('pdf')->where('user_id', $user_id)->first();

return Response::make(base64_decode( $pdf->pdf), 200, [
    'Content-Type' => 'application/pdf',
    'Content-Disposition' => 'inline; filename="'.$filename.'"',
]);

Where $pdf->pdf is the file column in database.