iTextSharp is a rich code library to create PDF and RTF output. Recently I decided to use it for a client and realized there are not much good code examples available on the internet. Even some of the code samples from its online tutorial wont run.
By doing a lot of try and error and with some help from other posts, I could get the desired output. It took me too much time to gather all this information and thought it may come handy to others. So I put together a sample web application which creates a PDF document and renders it to the client browser. Here is the code behind for the page:
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SendOutPDF(new CustomReports().CreatePDF("Title: Sample 1"));
}
/// <summary>
/// Sends a Stream of bytes to Client as a PDF file
/// </summary>
/// <param name="PDFData">Stream containing bytes</param>
protected void SendOutPDF(System.IO.MemoryStream PDFData)
{
// Clear response content & headers
Response.Clear();
Response.ClearContent();
Response.ClearHeaders();
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.Charset = string.Empty;
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(System.Web.HttpCacheability.Public);
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition",
"attachment; filename=" + Title.Replace(" ", "").Replace(":", "-") + ".pdf");
Response.OutputStream.Write(PDFData.GetBuffer(), 0, PDFData.GetBuffer().Length);
Response.OutputStream.Flush();
Response.OutputStream.Close();
Response.End();
}
}
The MemoryStream is generated by calling the CreatePDF() method in my CustomReports class. It's a very simple report of 30 lines of text, divided into 2 groups. A bookmark is created for each group to simplify navigation in large reports. It has custom multiline header and custom footer displaying "Page X of Y".
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Data;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using iTextSharp.text;
using iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
namespace PDF_Tests
{
public class CustomReports
{
public MemoryStream CreatePDF(string Title)
{
MemoryStream PDFData = new MemoryStream();
Document document = new Document(PageSize.LETTER, 50, 50, 80, 50);
PdfWriter PDFWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, PDFData);
PDFWriter.ViewerPreferences = PdfWriter.PageModeUseOutlines;
// Our custom Header and Footer is done using Event Handler
TwoColumnHeaderFooter PageEventHandler = new TwoColumnHeaderFooter();
PDFWriter.PageEvent = PageEventHandler;
// Define the page header
PageEventHandler.Title = Title;
PageEventHandler.HeaderFont = FontFactory.GetFont(BaseFont.COURIER_BOLD, 10, Font.BOLD);
PageEventHandler.HeaderLeft = "Group";
PageEventHandler.HeaderRight = "1";
document.Open();
for (int i = 1; i <= 2; i++)
{
// Define the page header
PageEventHandler.HeaderRight = i.ToString();
if (i != 1)
{
document.NewPage();
}
// New outline must be created after the page is added
AddOutline(PDFWriter, "Group " + i.ToString(), document.PageSize.Height);
for (int j = 1; j <= 30; j++)
{
Table ItemTable = new Table(2);
ItemTable.TableFitsPage = true;
ItemTable.Width = 95;
ItemTable.Offset = 0;
ItemTable.Border = 0;
ItemTable.DefaultCellBorder = 0;
ItemTable.AddCell(new Cell(string.Format("blah blah {0} - {1} ...", i, j)));
document.Add(ItemTable);
document.Add(new Paragraph("\r\n"));
}
}
document.Close();
return PDFData;
}
public void AddOutline(PdfWriter writer, string Title, float Position)
{
PdfDestination destination = new PdfDestination(PdfDestination.FITH, Position);
PdfOutline outline = new PdfOutline(writer.DirectContent.RootOutline, destination, Title);
writer.DirectContent.AddOutline(outline, "Name = " + Title);
}
}
}
Header and footer are created using a PageEventHandler class:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using iTextSharp.text;
namespace PDF_Tests
{
public class TwoColumnHeaderFooter :PdfPageEventHelper
{
// This is the contentbyte object of the writer
PdfContentByte cb;
// we will put the final number of pages in a template
PdfTemplate template;
// this is the BaseFont we are going to use for the header / footer
BaseFont bf = null;
// This keeps track of the creation time
DateTime PrintTime = DateTime.Now;
#region Properties
private string _Title;
public string Title
{
get { return _Title; }
set { _Title = value; }
}
private string _HeaderLeft;
public string HeaderLeft
{
get { return _HeaderLeft; }
set { _HeaderLeft = value; }
}
private string _HeaderRight;
public string HeaderRight
{
get { return _HeaderRight; }
set { _HeaderRight = value; }
}
private Font _HeaderFont;
public Font HeaderFont
{
get { return _HeaderFont; }
set { _HeaderFont = value; }
}
private Font _FooterFont;
public Font FooterFont
{
get { return _FooterFont; }
set { _FooterFont = value; }
}
#endregion
// we override the onOpenDocument method
public override void OnOpenDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
try
{
PrintTime = DateTime.Now;
bf = BaseFont.CreateFont(BaseFont.HELVETICA, BaseFont.CP1252, BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
cb = writer.DirectContent;
template = cb.CreateTemplate(50, 50);
}
catch (DocumentException de)
{
}
catch (System.IO.IOException ioe)
{
}
}
public override void OnStartPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
base.OnStartPage(writer, document);
Rectangle pageSize = document.PageSize;
if (Title != string.Empty)
{
cb.BeginText();
cb.SetFontAndSize(bf, 15);
cb.SetRGBColorFill(50, 50, 200);
cb.SetTextMatrix(pageSize.GetLeft(40), pageSize.GetTop(40));
cb.ShowText(Title);
cb.EndText();
}
if (HeaderLeft + HeaderRight != string.Empty)
{
PdfPTable HeaderTable = new PdfPTable(2);
HeaderTable.DefaultCell.VerticalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE;
HeaderTable.TotalWidth = pageSize.Width - 80;
HeaderTable.SetWidthPercentage(new float[] { 45, 45 }, pageSize);
PdfPCell HeaderLeftCell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase(8, HeaderLeft, HeaderFont));
HeaderLeftCell.Padding = 5;
HeaderLeftCell.PaddingBottom = 8;
HeaderLeftCell.BorderWidthRight = 0;
HeaderTable.AddCell(HeaderLeftCell);
PdfPCell HeaderRightCell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase(8, HeaderRight, HeaderFont));
HeaderRightCell.HorizontalAlignment = PdfPCell.ALIGN_RIGHT;
HeaderRightCell.Padding = 5;
HeaderRightCell.PaddingBottom = 8;
HeaderRightCell.BorderWidthLeft = 0;
HeaderTable.AddCell(HeaderRightCell);
cb.SetRGBColorFill(0, 0, 0);
HeaderTable.WriteSelectedRows(0, -1, pageSize.GetLeft(40), pageSize.GetTop(50), cb);
}
}
public override void OnEndPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
base.OnEndPage(writer, document);
int pageN = writer.PageNumber;
String text = "Page " + pageN + " of ";
float len = bf.GetWidthPoint(text, 8);
Rectangle pageSize = document.PageSize;
cb.SetRGBColorFill(100, 100, 100);
cb.BeginText();
cb.SetFontAndSize(bf, 8);
cb.SetTextMatrix(pageSize.GetLeft(40), pageSize.GetBottom(30));
cb.ShowText(text);
cb.EndText();
cb.AddTemplate(template, pageSize.GetLeft(40) + len, pageSize.GetBottom(30));
cb.BeginText();
cb.SetFontAndSize(bf, 8);
cb.ShowTextAligned(PdfContentByte.ALIGN_RIGHT,
"Printed On " + PrintTime.ToString(),
pageSize.GetRight(40),
pageSize.GetBottom(30), 0);
cb.EndText();
}
public override void OnCloseDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
base.OnCloseDocument(writer, document);
template.BeginText();
template.SetFontAndSize(bf, 8);
template.SetTextMatrix(0, 0);
template.ShowText("" + (writer.PageNumber - 1));
template.EndText();
}
}
}