[FOUND ISSUE] iTextSharp Html to PDF - issue parsing html

**lleemon** · Apr 28th, 2009, 10:08 AM

Below I have code that takes a url and pulls the html source. However, using iTextSharp if I print to pdf it works but it shows all the html tags in the document. I want it to be as if viewing in the browser so I believe what I am missing is dealing with the line 'HtmlParser.Parse(document, se)'. Does anyone know how I change this to accept my html code and parse it?

What I am trying to do it make a print to pdf linkbutton on my page that basically will requery the page and send the source to the iTextSharp to convert to pdf. If you think there is a better way let me know.

Code:

Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Xml
Imports iTextSharp.text
Imports iTextSharp.text.pdf
Imports iTextSharp.text.html
Imports iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser
Imports System.Net

Partial Class testemail
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub btnSendEmail_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnTest.Click
        lblOutput.Text = "ABCDEFG".ToLower
    End Sub

    Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim req As WebRequest = WebRequest.Create("http://www.google.com")
        Dim resp As WebResponse = req.GetResponse()

        Dim s As Stream = resp.GetResponseStream()
        Dim sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(s, Encoding.ASCII)
        Dim doc As String = sr.ReadToEnd()

        CreatePDFDocument(doc)
        
    End Sub

    Public Shared Sub CreatePDFDocument(ByVal strHtml As String)
        Dim MStream As New MemoryStream()
        Dim document As New Document(PageSize.A4, 80, 50, 30, 65)
        Try
            Dim writer As PdfWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, MStream)
            'document.Open()
            'document.Add(New iTextSharp.text.Paragraph("This is a test and must work"))
            'document.Close()

            Dim se As New StringReader(strHtml)
            document.Open()
            HtmlParser.Parse(document, se)  '<---- DOESN'T LIKE THIS LINE
            document.Close()

        Catch e As Exception
            Throw e
        End Try
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Buffer = True
        HttpContext.Current.Response.ClearContent()
        HttpContext.Current.Response.ClearHeaders()
        HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
        HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=myPDFNew.pdf")
        HttpContext.Current.Response.BinaryWrite(MStream.GetBuffer())
        HttpContext.Current.Response.End()
    End Sub
End Class

HTML Code:

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="testemail.aspx.vb" Inherits="testemail" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:Button ID="btnTest" runat="server" Text="Test" />
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Button" /><br />
        &nbsp;<br /><asp:Label ID="lblOutput" runat="server" Text=""></asp:Label>
        <br />
        <asp:TextBox ID="txtSource" runat="server" TextMode="MultiLine"></asp:TextBox></div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

**mendhak** · Apr 28th, 2009, 02:46 PM

Usually it's specific parts of a page that you want to send over the PDF file. Controls generally have a .RenderControl() method which writes out the HTML of that specific control which you can use to send over to the PDF so that you only render the parts that you want selectively.

**lleemon** · Apr 28th, 2009, 03:10 PM

mendhak - thanks for the info. It would be so much easier if you could say, take the page html and pass and then it creates a pdf. Sounds like I have to either manually recreate with iTextSharp or find a different way.

**mendhak** · Apr 29th, 2009, 02:22 AM

Oh, I see what you mean - you want all the HTML from the entire page?

OK, override the Render method.

Code:

 using(System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream()) 
    { 
        using(System.IO.StreamWriter sw = new System.IO.StreamWriter(ms)) 
        { 
            HtmlTextWriter htmlWriter = new HtmlTextWriter(sw); 
            base.Render(htmlWriter); 
            htmlWriter.Flush(); 
            ms.Position = 0; 
            using(System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(ms)) 
            { 
                string allTheLovelyHTML = sr.ReadToEnd(); 
                sr.Close(); 
            } 
        } 
    }

Or something like that. allTheLovelyHTML should then contain all the lovely HTML from your page. You can use it to generate a PDF.

**lleemon** · Apr 29th, 2009, 05:52 AM

The webrequest does the same thing and is working. I could try render, but I will still have the issue of writing it to pdf which is my current state.

Any suggestions to take the html and convert to pdf?

**lleemon** · Apr 29th, 2009, 06:27 AM

Based on the findings of Imran the following will work if the html is valid.

Code:

Public Shared Sub CreatePDFDocument(ByVal strHtml As String)
        Dim MStream As New MemoryStream()
        Dim document As New Document(PageSize.A4, 80, 50, 30, 65)
        Try
            Dim writer As PdfWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, MStream)
     
            Dim _xmlr As System.Xml.XmlTextReader = New System.Xml.XmlTextReader(New StringReader(strHtml))

            HtmlParser.Parse(document, _xmlr)

        Catch e As Exception
            Throw e
        End Try
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Buffer = True
        HttpContext.Current.Response.ClearContent()
        HttpContext.Current.Response.ClearHeaders()
        HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
        HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=myPDFNew.pdf")
        HttpContext.Current.Response.BinaryWrite(MStream.GetBuffer())
        HttpContext.Current.Response.End()
    End Sub

But it seems like any page I try even google it gives some kind of error. The basic "<html><body>THis is a test</body></html>" works though so guess I will either recreate or find a different solution.

**mendhak** · Apr 29th, 2009, 04:03 PM

What's the error?

**mendhak** · Apr 29th, 2009, 04:04 PM

The issue of writing to PDF isn't a big one, though. iTextSharp does, after all, take an HTML string, which is what the code in #4 is showing you, for the page.

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