Generate PDF from ApiController using Rotativa and WebAPI

Question

I want to create a pdf file using Rotativa framework from ApiController. In my project there is no any view. Content of pdf (HTML) is in the database.

Is it any way to generate pdf without View and ControllerContext ? Controller context is accessible only in Controller not in APIController...

I found this https://github.com/JustMaier/Rotativa/tree/ed7678eefdffb3995f5b6a3e9afb18903c648df8 but it needs View

Problem is in method BuildFile()...

Start from here

var a = new Rotativa.ViewAsPdf(pdfResult);
a.FileName = request.ResultFileName;
byte[] f = a.BuildFile();

ControlerContext can be null here

 public byte[] BuildFile(ControllerContext context = null)
    {
        if (this.WkhtmlPath == string.Empty)
            this.WkhtmlPath = context == null ? HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/Rotativa") : context.HttpContext.Server.MapPath("~/Rotativa");

        var fileContent = this.CallTheDriver(context);

        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.SaveOnServerPath) == false)
        {
            File.WriteAllBytes(this.SaveOnServerPath, fileContent);
        }

        return fileContent;
    }

...but here can't

    protected override byte[] CallTheDriver(ControllerContext context)
    {
        // use action name if the view name was not provided
        string viewName = ViewName;
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(viewName))
            viewName = context.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");

        ViewEngineResult viewResult = GetView(context, viewName, MasterName);
        string html = context.GetHtmlFromView(viewResult, viewName, Model);
        byte[] fileContent = WkhtmltopdfDriver.ConvertHtml(this.WkhtmlPath, this.GetConvertOptions(), html);
        return fileContent;
    }

What am i doing wrong ?

I need to use something that can convert html/razor to pdf and is free — emerog, Apr 11 '18 at 12:53
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/04/headless-chrome#create_a_pdf_dom — mjwills, Apr 11 '18 at 13:01
If your website can serve it, Chrome can view it (and thus generate a PDF of it). — mjwills, Apr 11 '18 at 13:07
This Project is a internal company project, it should be a service for pdf generation — emerog, Apr 11 '18 at 13:09

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 26 '19 at 06:40

Rotativa does not seem to be suitable for your scenario. It would be easier to use an alternative library like DinkToPdf instead, which doesn't need neither view nor controller context. You should be able to use the HTML from your database with it.

If you really need to use Rotativa, you could try the following:

add a dummy view to which you pass the HTML from your database using a ViewModel
create a dummy context, as shown in this question

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 25 '19 at 09:03

Try this: from API controller called MVC controller it worked for me

API Controller

public class DocumentsController : ApiController
{
        public HttpResponseMessage Pdf()
        {
            PDFController controller = new PDFController();
            RouteData route = new RouteData();
            route.Values.Add("action", "getPdf"); // ActionName
            route.Values.Add("controller", "PDF"); // Controller Name
            System.Web.Mvc.ControllerContext newContext = new 
            System.Web.Mvc.ControllerContext(new HttpContextWrapper(System.Web.HttpContext.Current), route, controller);
            controller.ControllerContext = newContext;
            var actionPDF = controller.getPdf(); 
            HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
            response.Content = new ByteArrayContent(actionPDF);// new StreamContent(new FileStream(localFilePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read));
            response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new System.Net.Http.Headers.ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment");
            response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition.FileName = "SamplePDF.PDF";
            response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/pdf");
            return response;
        }            
}

MVC Controller

    public class PDFController : Controller
    {
            public Byte[]  getPDF()
            {
            var actionPDF = new Rotativa.ViewAsPdf("YOUR_VIEW_NAME") )
            {

                PageSize = Rotativa.Options.Size.A4,
                PageOrientation = Rotativa.Options.Orientation.Landscape,
               PageMargins = { Left = 1, Right = 1 }
            };
            byte[] applicationPDFData = actionPDF.BuildPdf(this.ControllerContext);
            return applicationPDFData;
        }
   }

Generate PDF from ApiController using Rotativa and WebAPI

2 Answers2