ASP.NET web page to PDF

Question

I looking for the easiest way to export the currently viewed asp.net web page to a PDF document using iTextSharp - it can be either a screenshot of it or passing in the url to generate the document. Sample code would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

Answer 1

On a past project, we used Supergoo ABCPDF to do something like you need to and it worked quite well. You basicly feed it an url and it process the HTML page into a PDF.

On the downside, it's a licensed software with costs associated to it and we had some performance issues when exporting a lot of large PDF at the same time.

Hope this helps !

Answer 2

There is an example Convert the Current HTML Page to PDF on WInnovative website which does exactly this. The relevant C# code to convert the currently viewed asp.net web page to a PDF document is:

// Controls if the current HTML page will be rendered to PDF or as a normal page
bool convertToPdf = false;

protected void convertToPdfButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // The current ASP.NET page will be rendered to PDF when its Render method will be called by framework
    convertToPdf = true;
}

protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
    if (convertToPdf)
    {
        // Get the current page HTML string by rendering into a TextWriter object
        TextWriter outTextWriter = new StringWriter();
        HtmlTextWriter outHtmlTextWriter = new HtmlTextWriter(outTextWriter);
        base.Render(outHtmlTextWriter);

        // Obtain the current page HTML string
        string currentPageHtmlString = outTextWriter.ToString();

        // Create a HTML to PDF converter object with default settings
        HtmlToPdfConverter htmlToPdfConverter = new HtmlToPdfConverter();

        // Set license key received after purchase to use the converter in licensed mode
        // Leave it not set to use the converter in demo mode
        htmlToPdfConverter.LicenseKey = "fvDh8eDx4fHg4P/h8eLg/+Dj/+jo6Og=";

        // Use the current page URL as base URL
        string baseUrl = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri;

        // Convert the current page HTML string a PDF document in a memory buffer
        byte[] outPdfBuffer = htmlToPdfConverter.ConvertHtml(currentPageHtmlString, baseUrl);

        // Send the PDF as response to browser

        // Set response content type
        Response.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/pdf");

        // Instruct the browser to open the PDF file as an attachment or inline
        Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", String.Format("attachment; filename=Convert_Current_Page.pdf; size={0}", outPdfBuffer.Length.ToString()));

        // Write the PDF document buffer to HTTP response
        Response.BinaryWrite(outPdfBuffer);

        // End the HTTP response and stop the current page processing
        Response.End();
    }
    else
    {
        base.Render(writer);
    }
}

Answer 3

Adding to what Darin said in his comment.

You can try using wkhtmltopdf to generate PDF files. It takes URL as input. This is what I have used for my SO application so2pdf .

Answer 4

It is not that easy (or i think so), i had same problem and i had to write code to generate exact page in pdf. It depends of page and used styles etc. So i create drawing of each element.

For some project i used Winnovative HTML to PDF converter but it is not free.

Answer 5

Give a try with PDFSharp (to generate PDF files at runtime), and it's Open Source library : http://pdfsharp.com/PDFsharp/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=1

Alternative solution : http://www.bratched.com/en/component/content/article/76-how-to-convert-xhtml-to-pdf-in-c.html