Converting a webpage to PDF

Chada

Hi All,

I've been busy creating a webpage that uses javascript to generate some graphs and such, and I was wondering whether there was a tried and tested method to convert the webpage to PDF for download upon the user clicking a button.

I can't use an external windows application to convert the file as the process needs to be performed within the web app, of course when the user clicks the download/print link button. (if that makes sense :S)

A javascript plugin or piece of ASP code would be ideal - but I haven't had alot of luck so far...

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Dan

Eoin

you might get some ideas here:
http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t619932-web-page-to-pdf-on-the-fly.html

Don't rule out an external web application as you might be able to pass in some parameters to it from the ASP page, and it would be launched as a background process.

ocallagh

If your server can handle some PHP code let me know, don't know about ASP.

Ginger

If you are using .NET you can use look at these

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/HTML2PDF.aspx?display=PrintAll
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/showcase/TallComponents.aspx

Also WebSuperGoo have a product that does this well

http://www.websupergoo.com/

Chada

Hey thanks for all the replies.

I was originally adverse to having a desktop app convert the html page for me but the top link you supplied ginger looks like it could be one of the best options.

I guess i was going for a long shot hoping I could get some javascript plugin to do it for me :P

I'll give this a whirl see how I get on

Thanks again all

Gordon

I know it's probably not going to help you, but fyi you can print to pdf from a webpage on Mac X.

Liam Byrne

I've thought about this, and I reckon this is a non-runner ?

Javascript runs AFTER the page loads, but most print options print the source code of the page.

And most document editors won't even see the Javascript.

ocallagh

Liam Byrne wrote: »

I've thought about this, and I reckon this is a non-runner ?

Javascript runs AFTER the page loads, but most print options print the source code of the page.

And most document editors won't even see the Javascript.

You could send the innerHTML of the graphs to a script (via HTTP POST/AJAX) and have the script output an application/pdf content-type with a .pdf extension giving the user a download/open prompt whcih they can open and print directly from (similar to google docs print option which just gives the user a PDF of the file)

Liam Byrne

Spot on, ocallagh - I completely overlooked that it was the OP's own web page!

Being able to add/edit a script within that page changes things a fair bit.

p

What's the goal you're after? It's definitely possible to create PDFs on the fly, though getting the layout etc... maybe require some tweaking.

A quick google reveals plenty of resources, but this one looks promising:
http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/open-source-pdf-library-for-aspnet-pdfsharp/

One thing I'd consider (or may be part of your eventual solution) is to use a separate CS file for printing, that way when you print you can make something very suitable for a document. Modern browsers just grab that CSS file instead of the regular stylesheet when you hit print.