Export Grid View Data to PDF Using ITextSharp

This article explains how to export ASP.Net grid data to a PDF with custom width using iTextSharp.

What ITextSharp is: iTextSharp is a free and open source assembly that helps to convert page output or HTML content in PDF file.

You can download it from here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/itextsharp/

Now add that DLL to the application.

Getting Started

Start Visual Studio and create a new website in ASP.Net and add these 2 DLLs to the solution:

• Itextsharp.dll
• itextsharp.pdfa.dll

Now add these namespaces:

•  using iTextSharp.text;
• using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
• using iTextSharp.text.html;
• using iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser;

This is my GridView HTML:

<div>

    <asp:gridview id="gvEmployees" runat="server" emptydatatext="No data found" autogeneratecolumns="False"

        datakeynames="EmployeeID" datasourceid="SqlDataSource1" allowpaging="False" backcolor="White"

        bordercolor="#DEDFDE" borderstyle="None" borderwidth="1px" cellpadding="4" forecolor="Black"

        gridlines="Vertical" height="165px" width="678px">

<AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" />

<Columns>

<asp:BoundField DataField="EmployeeID" HeaderText="EmployeeID" InsertVisible="False" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="EmployeeID" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="LastName" HeaderText="LastName" SortExpression="LastName" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="FirstName" HeaderText="FirstName" SortExpression="FirstName" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="City" HeaderText="City" SortExpression="City" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="Region" HeaderText="Region" SortExpression="Region" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="PostalCode" HeaderText="PostalCode" SortExpression="PostalCode" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="Country" HeaderText="Country" SortExpression="Country" />

</Columns>

<FooterStyle BackColor="#CCCC99" />

<HeaderStyle BackColor="#6B696B" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />

<PagerStyle BackColor="#F7F7DE" ForeColor="Black" HorizontalAlign="Right" />

<RowStyle BackColor="#F7F7DE" />

<SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#CE5D5A" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />

<SortedAscendingCellStyle BackColor="#FBFBF2" />

<SortedAscendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#848384" />

<SortedDescendingCellStyle BackColor="#EAEAD3" />

<SortedDescendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#575357" />

</asp:gridview>

</div>

<asp:sqldatasource id="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" connectionstring="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthwindConnectionString %>"

    selectcommand="SELECT [EmployeeID], [LastName], [FirstName], [Title], [BirthDate], [City], [Region], [PostalCode], [Country] FROM [Employees]"></asp:sqldatasource>

<asp:button id="btnExport" runat="server" text="Export To PDF" onclick="btnExport_Click" />

Now let's work on the code behind part.

protected void btnExport_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

    Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";

    Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=EmployeeList.pdf");

    Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);

 

    StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();

    HtmlTextWriter htmlTextWriter = new HtmlTextWriter(stringWriter);

 

    gvEmployees.DataBind();

    gvEmployees.RenderControl(htmlTextWriter);

    gvEmployees.HeaderRow.Style.Add("width", "10%");

    gvEmployees.HeaderRow.Style.Add("font-size", "15px");

    gvEmployees.Style.Add("text-decoration", "none");

    gvEmployees.Style.Add("font-family", "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;");

    gvEmployees.Style.Add("font-size", "8px");

 

    StringReader sr = new StringReader(stringWriter.ToString());

    Document doc = new Document(PageSize.A2, 7f, 7f, 7f, 0f);

    HTMLWorker htmlparser = new HTMLWorker(doc);

    PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, Response.OutputStream);

    doc.Open();

    htmlparser.Parse(sr);

    doc.Close();

    Response.Write(doc);

    Response.End();

}

public override void VerifyRenderingInServerForm(Control control)

{

}

Now run the application. When the button is clicked the PDF will show in the grid view data like this:

Image 1.

Image 2.

For more help, download the attached sample application.