Create Generate PDF file and Download in ASPNet MVC

In this article I will explain with an example, how to create (generate) PDF file using iTextSharp and then download it in ASP.Net MVC Razor.

First the data will be populated from database using Entity Framework and then the records from the database will be used to create a PDF and then later the PDF file is downloaded using iTextSharp XMLWorkerHelper library in ASP.Net MVC Razor.

Database

Here I am making use of Microsoft’s Northwind Database. You can download it from here.

Download and install Northwind Database

Installing and adding reference of iTextSharp XMLWorkerHelper Library

In order to install and add reference of ITextSharp XMLWorkerHelper library, you will need to:-

1. Right Click the Project in Solution Explorer and click Manage NuGet Packages from the Context Menu.

Create (Generate) PDF file and Download in ASP.Net MVC

2. Now you will need to look for iTextSharp XMLWorker package and once found, you need to click the Install Button.

Configuring and connecting Entity Framework to database

Now I will explain the steps to configure and add Entity Framework and also how to connect it with the database.

You will need to add Entity Data Model to your project by right clicking the Solution Explorer and then click on Add and then New Item option of the Context Menu.

From the Add New Item window, select ADO.NET Entity Data Model and set its Name as NorthwindModel and then click Add.

Then the Entity Data Model Wizard will open up where you need to select EF Designer database option.

Now the wizard will ask you to connect and configure the Connection String to the database.

You will need to select the

1. SQL Server Instance

2. Database

And then click Test Connection to make sure all settings are correct.

Once the Connection String is generated, click Next button to move to the next step.

Next you will need to choose the Entity Framework version to be used for connection.

Now you will need to choose the Tables you need to connect and work with Entity Framework. Here Customers Table is selected.

The above was the last step and you should now have the Entity Data Model ready with the Customers Table of the Northwind Database.

Namespaces

You will need to import the following namespaces.

using System.IO;

using iTextSharp.text;

using iTextSharp.text.pdf;

using iTextSharp.tool.xml;

using iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser;

Controller

The Controller consists of two Action methods.

Action method for handling GET operation

Inside this Action method, the Top 10 Customer records are fetched and returned to the View.

Action method for handling the PDF File Export and Download operation

This Action method is executed when the Export Submit button is clicked.

Note: The following Action method performs File Download and hence the return type is set to FileResult.

The HTML of the Grid sent from the View is extracted from the GridHtml parameter.

Note: By default posting of HTML content via input fields which by default is disabled. For more details on enabling it, please refer What is ValidateInput(false) attribute, its Uses and Examples in ASP.Net MVC.

The HTML is read using an object of StringReader class which is then supplied to the ParseXHtml method of the XMLWorkerHelper class object which converts it to PDF document and saves to the MemoryStream class object.

Finally the MemoryStream class object is converted to Byte Array and exported and downloaded as PDF file using the File function.

public class HomeController : Controller

{

// GET: Home

public ActionResult Index()

{

NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities();

return View(from customer in entities.Customers.Take(10)

select customer);

}

[HttpPost]

[ValidateInput(false)]

public FileResult Export(string GridHtml)

{

using (MemoryStream stream = new System.IO.MemoryStream())

{

StringReader sr = new StringReader(GridHtml);

Document pdfDoc = new Document(PageSize.A4, 10f, 10f, 100f, 0f);

PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(pdfDoc, stream);

pdfDoc.Open();

XMLWorkerHelper.GetInstance().ParseXHtml(writer, pdfDoc, sr);

pdfDoc.Close();

return File(stream.ToArray(), "application/pdf", "Grid.pdf");

}

View

Now you will need to Right Click inside the Controller class and click on the Add View option in order to create a View for the Controller.

The Name of the View is set to Index, the Template option is set to Empty, the Model class is set to Customer Entity (the one we have generated using Entity Framework) and finally the Data context class is set to NorthwindEntities.

Inside the View, in the very first line the Customer Entity is declared as IEnumerable which specifies that it will be available as a Collection.

For displaying the records, an HTML Table is used. A loop will be executed over the Model which will generate the HTML Table rows with the Customer records.

There is an HTML Hidden Field element which is used to send the Grid HTML content to the Controller’s Action method.

Finally there’s an HTML Submit button enclosed inside a Form with the Action method specified as Export.

When this Button will be clicked, first the HTML of the Grid (Html Table) is extracted and set into the Hidden Field element and finally the Form is submitted.

@model IEnumerable<Export_PDF_MVC.Customer>

Layout = null;

}

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Index</title>

body {

font-family: Arial;

font-size: 9pt;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<h4>Customers</h4>

<hr/>

<tr>

<th style="background-color: #B8DBFD;border: 1px solid #ccc">CustomerID</th>

<th style="background-color: #B8DBFD;border: 1px solid #ccc">ContactName</th>

<th style="background-color: #B8DBFD;border: 1px solid #ccc">Country</th>

</tr>

@foreach (Customer customer in Model)

{

<tr>

<td style="width:120px;border: 1px solid #ccc">@customer.CustomerID</td>

<td style="width:120px;border: 1px solid #ccc">@customer.ContactName</td>

<td style="width:120px;border: 1px solid #ccc">@customer.City</td>

<td style="width:120px;border: 1px solid #ccc">@customer.Country</td>

</tr>

}

</table>

</div>

<br/>

@using (Html.BeginForm("Export", "Home", FormMethod.Post))

{

}

$(function () {

$("#btnSubmit").click(function () {

$("input[name='GridHtml']").val($("#Grid").html());

});

</script>

</body>

</html>

Screenshots

Grid (Html Table)

Exported PDF File

Downloads

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Create (Generate) PDF file and Download in ASP.Net MVC

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