mozilla/pdf.js — Issue #783: The URL argument method for download a PDF doesn't always work
Author: GPHemsley
Created: 2011-11-09 00:39:02+00:00
State: open

The method PDF.js currently uses to allow you to download a PDF file is by adding a "pdfjs.action=download" argument to the end of the PDF's URL, in order to override its own default behavior.

Unfortunately, this doesn't always work as intended. In some cases, servers will serve a different file (or none at all) with the modified URL. In my case, the server actually sent a 500 error.

In other words, example.com/xyz.pdf and example.com/xyz.pdf?pdfjs.action=download are not always identical files, and should be counted on to be as such.