Export Partial View to PDF file in ASPNet MVC Razor

In this article I will explain with an example, how to export Partial View to PDF file in ASP.Net MVC Razor.

First the Grid (Html Table) will be populated from database using Entity Framework inside the Partial View and then the HTML Table will be sent as HTML string to the Controller which ultimately will be exported to PDF file 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.

Export Partial View to PDF file in ASP.Net MVC Razor

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

Entity Framework Model

Once the Entity Framework is configured and connected to the database table, the Model will look as shown below.

Note: For beginners in ASP.Net MVC and Entity Framework, please refer my article ASP.Net MVC: Simple Entity Framework Tutorial with example. It covers all the information needed for connecting and configuring Entity Framework.

Namespaces

You will need to import the following namespaces.

using System.IO;

using iTextSharp.text;

using iTextSharp.text.pdf;

using iTextSharp.tool.xml;

Controller

The Controller consists of following 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 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

HTML Markup

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, the Partial View is rendered using @Html.Partial function which renders the Partial View using Model.

The Partial View will render as an HTML Grid (Table) consisting of the records from the Customers Table.

There is an HTML Hidden Field element which is used to send the HTML of the Partial View’s Grid (Html Table) 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 Partial View’s Grid (Html Table) is extracted and set into the Hidden Field element and finally the Form is submitted.

@model IEnumerable<Customer>

Layout = null;

}

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Index</title>

</head>

<body>

<h4>Customers</h4>

<hr />

@Html.Partial("Grid_View", Model)

</div>

<br />

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

{

}

$(function () {

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

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

});

</script>

</body>

</html>

Partial View

Inside the Partial 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.

@model IEnumerable<Customer>

<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>

Screenshot

Grid (Html Table)

Exported PDF File

Downloads

Download Code

Export Partial View to PDF file in ASP.Net MVC Razor

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