I have a mobile responsive website where users enter login credentials to gain access to view pdf files inside my portal.

When viewing the website on my android phone, if a pdf is opened from inside the portal, my android phone automatically downloads a copy of the pdf on the android phone and then opens it.

This same process on a laptop or desktop simply opens the pdf in the default browser. There is a download button, but it is not automatically downloaded on the device.

From a programming standpoint, is there a way a programmer could prevent the PDF document from being automatically downloaded on the android phone and just have the document viewable in the browser?

CodePudding user response：

Depends on what you mean by downloaded. Whenever you view ANYTHING on the web, you have to download it. Downloading is the process of receiving data from a remote source. You have to download any webpage or url to view it.

It seems what you're asking is "Does it have to be saved to a file in the Downloads folder". In which case no, it doesn't. You could download it and keep it in RAM.