ASP.NET MVC - Save Generated HTML as PDF to folder

Question

I've generated an HTML page in MVC ASP.NET C#. (with html helpers)

I would like to automaticly save this page as a pdf in a specific folder

Currently, when someone submits a form it gets send to a DB, but I also want that [HttpPost] to turn that submitted form to a pdf

Example: http://example1234.com/Persons/details/15

How do i save this as a pdf?

    private string datadir = null;
    private string wkhtmltopdf = null;

    [HttpPost]
    [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
    public ActionResult Create(Person person)
    {
        datadir = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["datadir"];
        wkhtmltopdf = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["wkhtmltopdf"];

        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            db.People.Add(person);
            db.SaveChanges();


            //here the PDF should be created
            System.IO.File.WriteAllText("details/" + person.ID +".html"));

            var pdf1 = new ProcessStartInfo(wkhtmltopdf);

            pdf1.CreateNoWindow = true;
            pdf1.UseShellExecute = false;
            pdf1.WorkingDirectory = datadir + "tmp\\";
            pdf1.Arguments = "-q -n --disable-smart-shrinking Pdf." + person.ID + ".html Pdf." + person.ID + ".pdf";

            using (var process = Process.Start(pdf1))
            {
                process.WaitForExit(99999);
                Debug.WriteLine(process.ExitCode);
            }

        return View(person);
    }

Did you check the http://stackoverflow.com/questions/779430/asp-net-mvc-how-to-get-view-to-generate-pdf ? — Spock, Oct 17 '14 at 12:07

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 18 '14 at 08:46

posted it as an answer to one of my other questons, but it also applies here so here you go for those interested.

[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Create(Person person)

    datadir = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["datadir"];
    //datadirectory defined in Web.config
    //also possible to hardcode it here, example: "c:/windows/PDFfolder"

    wkhtmltopdf = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["wkhtmltopdf"];
    //directory to the file "wkhtmltopdf", downloaded it somewhere
    //just like above, defined at web.config possible to hardcode it in

    ViewData["IsModelValid"] = ModelState.IsValid ? "true" : "false";
    //valid checker


    if (ModelState.IsValid)      //check if valid
    {                
    db.People.Add(person);       //add to db

        db.SaveChanges();
    var fileContents1 = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(datadir + "Template.html"); 
    //get template from datadirectory
    fileContents1 = fileContents1.Replace("#NAME#", person.Name);
    //replace '#NAME#' by the name from the database table person.Name

   System.IO.File.WriteAllText(datadir + "tmp\\Template." + person.ID + ".html", fileContents1);
   //create a new html page with the replaced text
   //name of the file equals the ID of the person


        var pdf1 = new ProcessStartInfo(wkhtmltopdf); //start process wkhtmltopdf
        pdf1.CreateNoWindow = true;  //don't create a window
        pdf1.UseShellExecute = false; //don't use a shell
        pdf1.WorkingDirectory = datadir + "tmp\\"; //where to create the pdf
        pdf1.Arguments = "-q -n --disable-smart-shrinking Overeenkomst." + person.ID + ".html Overeenkomst." + person.ID + ".pdf";
      //get the html to convert and make a pdf with the same name in the same directory

    }

    return View(person);
}

ASP.NET MVC - Save Generated HTML as PDF to folder

1 Answers1