rails app downloading documents instead of displaying

Question

I am creating a document upload form for my rails app, everything works fine, except when I try and display the .txt document that has just been uploaded, the document is downloaded instead?

These are the two lines of code running on my show.html.erb file

<%= link_to 'View file', @document.file %>

<%= link_to 'Download', @document.file, download: '' %>

both the View file and Download buttons are downloading the file.

How do I go about displaying the file?

This is the application controller:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
    before_action :configure_permitted_parameters, if: :devise_controller?

    protected

    def configure_permitted_parameters
        added_attrs = [:username, :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :remember_me]
        devise_parameter_sanitizer.permit :sign_up, keys: added_attrs
        devise_parameter_sanitizer.permit :account_update, keys: added_attrs
    end
end

And this is the documents controller. The files being uploaded are called documents:

class DocumentsController < ApplicationController
  before_action :set_document, only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]
  # GET /documents
  # GET /documents.json
  def index
    @documents = Document.all
  end

  # GET /documents/1
  # GET /documents/1.json
  def show
  end

  # GET /documents/new
  def new
    @document = Document.new
  end

  # GET /documents/1/edit
  def edit
  end

  # POST /documents
  # POST /documents.json
  def create
    @document = Document.new(document_params)

    respond_to do |format|
      if @document.save
        format.html { redirect_to @document, notice: 'Document was successfully created.' }
        format.json { render :show, status: :created, location: @document }
      else
        format.html { render :new }
        format.json { render json: @document.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
      end
    end
  end

  # PATCH/PUT /documents/1
  # PATCH/PUT /documents/1.json
  def update
    respond_to do |format|
      if @document.update(document_params)
        format.html { redirect_to @document, notice: 'Document was successfully updated.' }
        format.json { render :show, status: :ok, location: @document }
      else
        format.html { render :edit }
        format.json { render json: @document.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
      end
    end
  end

  # DELETE /documents/1
  # DELETE /documents/1.json
  def destroy
    @document.destroy
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html { redirect_to documents_url, notice: 'Document was successfully destroyed.' }
      format.json { head :no_content }
    end
  end

  private
    # Use callbacks to share common setup or constraints between actions.
    def set_document
      @document = Document.find(params[:id])
    end

    # Only allow a list of trusted parameters through.
    def document_params
      params.require(:document).permit(:title, :description, :file)
    end
end

Answer 1

You should check that you are sending the file with the option disposition: :inline in your rails controller. The default value of that option is 'attachment'.

For example in your controller action send your file for example with:

send_file document.file,
          :type => "application/pdf",
          :file_name => document.file.name,
          :disposition => 'inline'

If you want your link to be opened in a separate tab you can just add target: '_blank' to your link options.