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I spend hours to find a way to control download behavior of pdf-files (when to download and when to show inline) and did not find anything.

What I got so far:

the main thing that do all files magic is

/sfc/servlet.shepherd/ ....

  1. We can download file by:

    • ContentVersion Id - /sfc/servlet.shepherd/version/download/<VERSION>
    • ContentDocument Id - /sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/<DOCUMENT>
    • Zip archive by Ids separated by slash - /sfc/servlet.shepherd/version/download/<VERSION 1>/<VERSION 2>?

  2. For some reason in salesforce download links we can find the following parameter operationContext=S1 OR operationContext=CHATER, which seems do nothing

  3. Also servlet.shepherd can show preview image of pdf /sfc/servlet.shepherd/version/renditionDownload?rendition=SVGZ&versionId=<VERSION>, where ?rendition= can be:

    • SVGZ
    • THUMB120BY90
    • THUMB240BY180
    • THUMB720BY480

All these options are not covered by official documentation and I feel there could be much more features. Does anybody know other options? Is there any documentation explaining all possible options?

UPD: Added option with multiple files download as a zip provided by @cropredy

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4
  • I would love to know if we can force inline behavior vs download, for pdfs I want it to open in browser window but it seems to just download the document and then the user has to click the download to open it.
    – Scott Morrison
    Feb 12, 2019 at 14:31
  • 1
    @ScottMorrison, I don't think you can change that behavior programatically, but if you have a Visualforce page rendered as a PDF you can set 'content-disposition' header on the Visualforce page to determine what the browser does with it and there are also settings under "Setup" > "Security" > "File Upload and Download Security" to change how certain file extensions are handled by default within Salesforce (ex. ".pdf => download" or ".mp4 => execute in browser")
    – nbrown
    May 13, 2020 at 23:33
  • Though the hardcoded URL method works, it isn't officially supported. So i would request you upvote this idea https://trailblazer.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=0874V000000PiVqQAK and share it as well. Direct access to the images will be really helpful for use in custom applications and components.
    – Edwin Raymond
    Aug 1, 2020 at 19:18
  • 1
    Please beware that servlet.shepherd has problems with special characters: In case the file name contains special characters (e.g. äüö) a files name is changed to the Id of the ContentDocument/ContentVersion .
    – user1848077
    Sep 23, 2020 at 10:24

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
17

Looks like there are some changes recently. I am seeing below pattern with API version 48

For authenticated users

/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/06955000001UrOPAA0

For communities

/sfsites/c/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/06955000001UrOPAA0

ID in the URL being content document ID.

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1
  • Thank you a ton. I didn't realize the communities url was prefixed now.
    – Brandon Slaght
    Jun 26, 2020 at 18:58
14

You can also download multiple files as a zip

{!URLFOR('/sfc/servlet.shepherd/version/download/' & delimitedSelectedIdList &'?')}

example:

{!URLFOR('/sfc/servlet.shepherd/version/download/068xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/068yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?')}

more details on my blog

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1

I came here because i have problem with displaying images on community site in incognito mode ( on the external user). Normally i can display when I'm login by my salesforce user using this src img:

/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/06955000001UrOPAA0

I showed up here that for communities i should try with this :

/sfsites/c/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/06955000001UrOPAA0

But it still did not work. What can be problem? What should I check more over ?

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