How to return PDF to browser in MVC

Question

I have this demo code for iTextSharp      Document document   new Document        try               PdfWriter GetInstance document  new FileStream  Chap0101 pdf   FileMode Create             document Open             document Add new Paragraph  Hello World                catch  DocumentException de                Console Error WriteLine de Message             catch  IOException ioe                Console Error WriteLine ioe Message              document Close      How do I get the controller to return the pdf document to the browser   EDIT   Running this code does open Acrobat but I get an error message  The file is damaged and could not be repaired     public FileStreamResult pdf                 MemoryStream m   new MemoryStream            Document document   new Document            PdfWriter GetInstance document  m           document Open            document Add new Paragraph  Hello World             document Add new Paragraph DateTime Now ToString              m Position   0           return File m   application pdf            Any ideas why this does not work

User · Answer

I know this question is old but I thought I would share this as I could not find anything similar.

I wanted to create my views/models as normal using Razor and have them rendered as Pdfs.

This way I had control over the pdf presentation using standard html output rather than figuring out how to layout the document using iTextSharp.

The project and source code is available here with nuget installation instructions:

https://github.com/andyhutch77/MvcRazorToPdf

Install-Package MvcRazorToPdf

User · Answer

You can create a custom class to modify the content type and add the file to the response   http   haacked com archive 2008 05 10 writing-a-custom-file-download-action-result-for-asp net-mvc aspx

User · Answer

Return a FileContentResult  The last line in your controller action would be something like   return File  Chap0101 pdf    application pdf      If you are generating this PDF dynamically  it may be better to use a MemoryStream  and create the document in memory instead of saving to file  The code would be something like   Document document   new Document     MemoryStream stream   new MemoryStream     try       PdfWriter pdfWriter   PdfWriter GetInstance document  stream       pdfWriter CloseStream   false       document Open        document Add new Paragraph  Hello World       catch  DocumentException de        Console Error WriteLine de Message     catch  IOException ioe        Console Error WriteLine ioe Message      document Close     stream Flush      Always catches me out stream Position   0    Not sure if this is required  return File stream   application pdf    DownloadName pdf

User · Answer

You would normally do a Response Flush followed by a Response Close  but for some reason the iTextSharp library doesn t seem to like this   The data doesn t make it through and Adobe thinks the PDF is corrupt   Leave out the Response Close function and see if your results are better   Response Clear    Response ContentType    application pdf   Response AppendHeader  Content-disposition    attachment  filename file pdf       open in a new window Response OutputStream Write outStream GetBuffer    0  outStream GetBuffer   Length   Response Flush        For some reason  if we close the Response stream  the PDF doesn t make it through   Response Close

User · Answer

I got it working with this code   using iTextSharp text  using iTextSharp text pdf   public FileStreamResult pdf         MemoryStream workStream   new MemoryStream        Document document   new Document        PdfWriter GetInstance document  workStream  CloseStream   false       document Open        document Add new Paragraph  Hello World         document Add new Paragraph DateTime Now ToString          document Close         byte   byteInfo   workStream ToArray        workStream Write byteInfo  0  byteInfo Length       workStream Position   0       return new FileStreamResult workStream   application pdf

User · Answer

HttpContext Response AddHeader  content-disposition   attachment  filename form pdf      if the filename is generating dynamically then how to define filename here  it is generating through guid here

User · Answer

You must specify    Response AppendHeader  content-disposition    inline  filename file pdf    return new FileStreamResult stream   application pdf     For the file to be opened directly in the browser instead of being downloaded

User · Answer

If you return a FileResult from your action method  and use the File   extension method on the controller  doing what you want is pretty easy  There are overrides on the File   method that will take the binary contents of the file  the path to the file  or a Stream   public FileResult DownloadFile         return File  path  to  pdf pdf    application pdf

User · Answer

if you return var-binary data from DB to display PDF on popup or browser means follow this code -   View page    using  Html BeginForm  DisplayPDF    Scan   FormMethod Post                  lt a href  javascript    onclick  document forms 0  submit     gt View PDF lt  a gt          Scan controller   public ActionResult DisplayPDF                         byte   byteArray   GetPdfFromDB 4               MemoryStream pdfStream   new MemoryStream                pdfStream Write byteArray  0  byteArray Length               pdfStream Position   0              return new FileStreamResult pdfStream   application pdf                       private byte   GetPdfFromDB int id                         region             byte   bytes                    string constr   System Configuration ConfigurationManager ConnectionStrings  Connection   ConnectionString              using  SqlConnection con   new SqlConnection constr                                 using  SqlCommand cmd   new SqlCommand                                          cmd CommandText    SELECT Scan Pdf File FROM PWF InvoiceMain WHERE InvoiceID  Id and Enabled   1                       cmd Parameters AddWithValue   Id   id                       cmd Connection   con                      con Open                        using  SqlDataReader sdr   cmd ExecuteReader                                                  if  sdr HasRows    true                                                        sdr Read                                bytes    byte   sdr  Scan Pdf File                                                                        con Close                                                 return bytes               endregion

User · Answer

I ve run into similar problems and I ve stumbled accross a solution   I used two posts  one from stack that shows the method to return for download and another one that shows a working solution for ItextSharp and MVC   public FileStreamResult About            Set up the document and the MS to write it to and create the PDF writer instance     MemoryStream ms   new MemoryStream        Document document   new Document PageSize A4 Rotate         PdfWriter writer   PdfWriter GetInstance document  ms           Open the PDF document     document Open            Set up fonts used in the document     Font font heading 1   FontFactory GetFont FontFactory TIMES ROMAN  19  Font BOLD       Font font body   FontFactory GetFont FontFactory TIMES ROMAN  9           Create the heading paragraph with the headig font     Paragraph paragraph      paragraph   new Paragraph  Hello world    font heading 1           Add a horizontal line below the headig text and add it to the paragraph     iTextSharp text pdf draw VerticalPositionMark seperator   new iTextSharp text pdf draw LineSeparator        seperator Offset   -6f      paragraph Add seperator           Add paragraph to document     document Add paragraph           Close the PDF document     document Close            Hat tip to David for his code on stackoverflow for this bit        https   stackoverflow com questions 779430 asp-net-mvc-how-to-get-view-to-generate-pdf     byte   file   ms ToArray        MemoryStream output   new MemoryStream        output Write file  0  file Length       output Position   0       HttpContext Response AddHeader  content-disposition   attachment  filename form pdf             Return the output stream     return File output   application pdf      new FileStreamResult output   application pdf

User · Answer

FileStreamResult certainly works  But if you look at the Microsoft Docs  it inherits from ActionResult - gt  FileResult  which has another derived class FileContentResult  It  sends the contents of a binary file to the response   So if you already have the byte    you should just use FileContentResult instead   public ActionResult DisplayPDF         byte   byteArray   GetPdfFromWhatever         return new FileContentResult byteArray   application pdf

[c#] How to return PDF to browser in MVC?

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