Save webpage as PDF in ASP.net MVC 1.0

[Rajendra Prasad]

Hi friends,

i need a sample code to save webpage as pdf in asp.net mvc 1.0 .

Could any one guide how can i do this.

thanks in advance

regards,
RajendraPrasad.

[Matthew Hinze]

There are a few options, but here's one from Mahendra Mavani. 

I've used two HTML to PDF converters.  Prince, the tool Mahendra uses, is very nice but it's expensive (server license is US$3800)  and a free alternative that uses webkit.    

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[Dan Cary]

We use ABC.PDF. It is only a couple hundred dollars and works fine. There are ways of getting it free. 

Dan

[Ely Lucas]

You will need a 3rd party tool to do this, as there is not any functionality to do so built into the .net framework.  One library I've used that is fairly simple is ExpertPDF (http://www.html-to-pdf.net).  I have seen an open source project as well, but don't recall the name of it off hand.  The ExpertPDF download has a fully functional trial and plenty of code samples.

--

[Stephen Bohlen]

If you absolutely *must* have free, iTextSharp is a .NET port of the OSS iText library in Java and works pretty well (though its somewhat rough (read: low-level) as an API).

Steve Bohlen
sbo...@gmail.com
http://blog.unhandled-exceptions.com
http://twitter.com/sbohlen

[Darrell Mozingo]

+1 for ABC PDF. xcopy deployment and easy to work with too.

Darrell

[Donn Felker]

You can also use the Spark View Engine and use the PdfResult() and you'll get the page back as a PDF.

It uses iTextSharp under the hood. https://github.com/loudej/spark/tree/master/src/Spark.Web.Mvc.Pdf


Donn Felker
Author of Android App Dev for Dummies & Intro to Android Development (tekpub.com)
Microsoft ASPInsider, MCTS, MCP, CSM, ITIL
http://blog.donnfelker.com
http://twitter.com/donnfelker

[Stephen Bohlen]

Fascinating; too bad that wasn't a thing 10 years ago when I had to write my own for a client!

Steve Bohlen
sbo...@gmail.com
http://blog.unhandled-exceptions.com
http://twitter.com/sbohlen

[Rajendra Prasad]

Hi,

in my viewPage i coded like this:
<%=Html.ActionLink("View this page as PDF", "Print", new { format = "pdf" })%>

in controller

  public ActionResult Print(string format)
        {
            if (format == "pdf")
                return new PdfViewResult();

            return View();
        }      

and added          PdfViewResult given by do...@donnfelker.com


overall controller view is


namespace INCES.Controllers
{
    public class MemberController : Controller
    {
 


        public ActionResult Print(string format)
        {
            if (format == "pdf")
                return new PdfViewResult();

            return View();
        }               

    }//close of member controller

    public class PdfViewResult : ViewResult
    {
        protected override ViewEngineResult FindView(ControllerContext context)
        {
            var result = base.FindView(context);
            if (result.View == null)
                return result;

            var pdfView = new PdfView(result);
            return new ViewEngineResult(pdfView, pdfView);
        }

        class PdfView : IView, IViewEngine
        {
            private readonly ViewEngineResult _result;

            public PdfView(ViewEngineResult result)
            {
                _result = result;
            }

            public void Render(ViewContext viewContext, TextWriter writer)
            {
                // generate view in memory
                var spoolWriter = new SpoolWriter();
                _result.View.Render(viewContext, spoolWriter);

                // detect itext (or html) format of response
                XmlParser parser;
                using (var reader = GetXmlReader(spoolWriter))
                {
                    //while (reader.Read() && reader.NodeType != XmlNodeType.Element)
                    //{
                    //    // no-op
                    //}

                    if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element && reader.Name == "itext")
                        parser = new XmlParser();
                    else
                        parser = new HtmlParser();
                }

                // Create a document processing context
                var document = new Document();
                document.Open();

                // associate output with response stream
                var pdfWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, viewContext.HttpContext.Response.OutputStream);
                pdfWriter.CloseStream = false;

                // this is as close as we can get to being "success" before writing output
                // so set the content type now
                viewContext.HttpContext.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";

                // parse memory through document into output
                using (var reader = GetXmlReader(spoolWriter))
                {
                    parser.Go(document, reader);
                }

                pdfWriter.Close();
            }

            private static XmlTextReader GetXmlReader(IEnumerable<string> source)
            {
                return new XmlTextReader(new SpoolReader(source));
            }

            public ViewEngineResult FindPartialView(ControllerContext controllerContext, string partialViewName, bool useCache)
            {
                throw new System.NotImplementedException();
            }

            public ViewEngineResult FindView(ControllerContext controllerContext, string viewName, string masterName, bool useCache)
            {
                throw new System.NotImplementedException();
            }

            public void ReleaseView(ControllerContext controllerContext, IView view)
            {
                _result.ViewEngine.ReleaseView(controllerContext, _result.View);
            }
        }
    }//pdfclass
}//namespace



//while (reader.Read() && reader.NodeType != XmlNodeType.Element)
                    //{
                    //    // no-op
                    //}


if do like this i am getting empty page.



help me plz wasted 3 days on this.

thanks and regards,

Rajendra Prasad K

[Rajendra Prasad]

hi,
thanks for the help.

can i have a sample example to use this exactly.

because i am getting this error.

Root element is missing.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Xml.XmlException: Root element is missing.

Source Error:

Line 939: using (var reader = GetXmlReader(spoolWriter)) Line 940: { Line 941: while (reader.Read() && reader.NodeType != XmlNodeType.Element) Line 942: { Line 943: // no-op

Source File: D:\INCECS\INCECS\INCECS\Controllers\MemberController.cs    Line: 941

Stack Trace:

[XmlException: Root element is missing.] System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e) +76 System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ThrowWithoutLineInfo(String res) +61 System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent() +3979352 System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read() +151 System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read() +15 INCES.Controllers.PdfView.Render(ViewContext viewContext, TextWriter writer) in D:\INCECS\INCECS\INCECS\Controllers\MemberController.cs:941 System.Web.Mvc.ViewResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context) +280 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResult(ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionResult actionResult) +10 System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass14.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__11() +20 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation) +251 System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass16.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__13() +19 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionResult actionResult) +178 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeAction(ControllerContext controllerContext, String actionName) +314 System.Web.Mvc.Controller.ExecuteCore() +105 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase.Execute(RequestContext requestContext) +39 System.Web.Mvc.ControllerBase.System.Web.Mvc.IController.Execute(RequestContext requestContext) +7 System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass8.<BeginProcessRequest>b__4() +34 System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass1.<MakeVoidDelegate>b__0() +21 System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass8`1.<BeginSynchronous>b__7(IAsyncResult _) +12 System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.End() +59 System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +44 System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.System.Web.IHttpAsyncHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult result) +7 System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +8674318 System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +155

---

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3053; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3053

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 4:12 AM, Donn Felker <do...@donnfelker.com> wrote: