Rotativa Download with SaveAs dialog

Question

I am using Rotativa tool to display pdf. It works fine with the following code:

public ActionResult PreviewDocument()
{

     var htmlContent = Session["html"].ToString();
     var model = new PdfInfo { Content = htmlContent, Name = "PDF Doc" };
     return new ViewAsPdf(model);
}

I wanted to know the way to download the pdf via browser's "save as" dialog on clicking on a button and not to display in some iframe. "new ViewAsPdf(model)" just returns the pdf data.

Thanks in advance.

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 06 '15 at 07:37

11

You can add additional attributes to the Rotativa call like this:

return new PartialViewAsPdf("PreviewDocument", pdfModel)
                   {
                       PageSize = Size.A4,
                       FileName = "PDF Doc.pdf"
                   };

And it'll create the file for you. :)

answered Jan 06 '15 at 07:37

derekadk

214
2
6

Why is this not the accepted answer? It's simple, requires hardly any extra code and works just fine. – Simon Mar 07 '16 at 12:13
This is exactly what I needed. Super simple. Thanks. – Chetdu Oct 02 '18 at 20:47

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 26 '14 at 15:38

I finally got a way to do this.

Actually rotativa's method "return new ViewAsPdf(model)" returns HttpResponseStream. Where we can hardly do something. But we can modify/alter the response once the action get executed by using custom attribute. We can override OnResultExecuted() method of action filter.

Controller's action

[HttpGet]
[ActionDownload] //here a custom action filter added
public ActionResult DownloadDocument()
{   
    var htmlContent = "<h1>sachin Kumar</hi>";

    var model = new PdfInfo {FtContent = htmlContent, FtName = "Populate Form"};
    return new ViewAsPdf(model);
}

Custom Action filter:

public class ActionDownloadAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public override void OnResultExecuted(ResultExecutedContext filterContext)
    {   
            //Add content-disposition header to response so that browser understand to download as an attachment.   
        filterContext.HttpContext.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=" + "Report.pdf"); 

            base.OnResultExecuted(filterContext);
    }
}

Why this answer is not mentioned as "Answer"? this is useful to all people who are using MVC ActionResults to return PDF files, irrespective of any library. I am using MvcRazorToPdf, it depends on iTextSharp, and this code still works. — Sandesh Daddi, Aug 06 '14 at 10:22
This is unnecessarily complicated, have a look at @derekadk's answer. All you have to do is add the FileName attribute: return new ViewAsPdf(model) { FileName = "file.pdf" }; — Bjarte Aune Olsen, Feb 16 '15 at 14:11

Petri Tuononen · Answer 3 · 2013-10-01T14:37:00.447

You can use return new ActionAsPdf. No custom attributes or anything else required. Example: https://github.com/webgio/Rotativa/

public ActionResult PrintPreviewDocument()
{
    return new ActionAsPdf("PreviewDocument") { FileName = "PDF Doc.pdf" };
}

public ActionResult PreviewDocument()
{

    var htmlContent = Session["html"].ToString();
    var model = new PdfInfo { Content = htmlContent, Name = "PDF Doc" };
    return View(model);
}

Rotativa Download with SaveAs dialog

3 Answers3