代码在控制台应用程序上有效，但在ASP.NET应用程序上无效

Question

I want to create reports in my ASP.NET MVC 5 application. I found this code (Hello world example in http://report.sourceforge.net/ ):

    Report report = new Report(new PdfFormatter());
    FontDef fd = new FontDef(report, "Helvetica");
    FontProp fp = new FontPropMM(fd, 25);
    Page page = new Page(report);
    page.AddCB_MM(80, new RepString(fp, "Hello World!"));
    RT.ViewPDF(report, "HelloWorld.pdf");

When I put this code inside a main in a console application, it creates and opens a PDF file that writes "Hello World". But when I put the same code inside a controller in ASP.NET like this, I get nothing, no PDF opens or no PDF is saved in the server (I click mywebsite/Person/Print) :

 public ActionResult Print(int? id)
    {
        if (id == null)
        {
            return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
        }
        Person person= db.Person.Find(id);
        if (person== null)
        {

            Report report = new Report(new PdfFormatter());
            FontDef fd = new FontDef(report, "Helvetica");
            FontProp fp = new FontPropMM(fd, 25);
            Page page = new Page(report);
            page.AddCB_MM(80, new RepString(fp, "Hello World!"));
            RT.ViewPDF(report, "HelloWorld.pdf");
        }
        return View(person);
    }

How can I modify my ASP.NET application to let user get PDFs using this code? (I will also appreciate if you know any cool-free reporting tools for ASP.NET MVC 5.) Thanks.

Answer 1

Not sure what libraries you are using there but the general flow of your action should be like:

• prepare report object
• obtain byte array representing the content of the PDF file
• return a File from your action using the File method: Controller.File

The result on the client would be a file download prompt