How to Generate pdf of details view in mvc 3

Question

I just want to generate a pdf document of the details presents in view on button click.

Answer 1

In order to generate a PDF file you will need some third party library as this functionality is not built-in the .NET framework. iTextSharp is a popular one.

So for example you could write a custom action result:

public class PdfResult : ActionResult
{
    public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
    {
        var response = context.HttpContext.Response;
        response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
        var cd = new ContentDisposition
        {
            Inline = true,
            FileName = "test.pdf",
        };
        response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", cd.ToString());

        using (var doc = new Document())
        using (var writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, response.OutputStream))
        {
            doc.Open();
            doc.Add(new Phrase("Hello World"));
        }
    }
}

and then have your controller action return this result:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return new PdfResult();
    }
}