Print asp.net page as PDF

Question

I would like to print a page as PDF. But the thing is that before printing, I want to expand all the controls (GridView, Treeview...).

I found somes solutions using Page.RenderControl (or Control.RenderControl) but i have some error saying "A page can have only one server-side Form tag.". I understand the error (that only one Form must be added). but I would have thought RenderControl would write in the new Writer (and not the current one).

    Dim stringWriter As New StringWriter()
    Dim htmlWriter As New HtmlTextWriter(stringWriter)
    Me.Page.RenderControl(htmlWriter)

To expand controls, I have to change properties and then, render the page. Once rendered in a PDF, I would like to let the page load as normal. Response.End stop loading and the page is blank.

Is there an (good) alternative to take page content, change content (ex: grid.AllowPaging = False) and send him in a stream?

Could you pop up a window and generate the PDF in there? – Tim Oct 15 '14 at 18:27 — Tim, Oct 15 '14 at 18:27

ematica · Answer 1 · 2014-10-15T18:47:42.870

Try with HtmlForm instead of Me.Page.RenderControl

        Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
        Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=this.pdf");
        Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
        StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
        HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
        HtmlForm frm = new HtmlForm();
        GridView1.AllowPaging = false;
        GridView1.Parent.Controls.Add(frm);
        frm.Controls.Add(GridView1);
        frm.RenderControl(hw);
        StringReader sr = new StringReader(sw.ToString());
        Document PDFdoc = new Document(PageSize.A4, 10.0F, 10.0F, 10.0F, 0.0F);
        iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser.HTMLWorker htmlparser =   new iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser.HTMLWorker(PDFdoc);
        PdfWriter.GetInstance(PDFdoc, Response.OutputStream);
        PDFdoc.Open();
        htmlparser.Parse(sr);
        PDFdoc.Close();
        Response.Write(PDFdoc);
        Response.End();

I already found this code. But We want to print a page with a different content that the one in the browser (grid and treeview expanded). So we don't want to render the pdf file. We think we will create an other page (copy paste) for this use and call something like Excecute() — BonOeil, Nov 11 '14 at 16:24

Print asp.net page as PDF

1 Answers1