Ajax is not running with Rotativa ViewAsPdf

Question

I have in my .Net MVC Application a "Localization" Controller with a JsonResult Action.

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Index(string id)
{
  var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject("\"" +  ResourceHelper.GetString(id) + "\"");

  return Json(data, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

This Controller gets a specific resource string from the resource file and returns it as Json.

I create a pdf with the nuget package "Rotativa" Version 1.7.1 based on wkhtmltopdf. I can create the Pdf, thats not the problem. The issue comes, when I use Js-files on this pdf view which makes Ajax calls to the localization controller abve.. My Js on the pdf View:

var dataValues = "";
$.getJSON("/Localization/Index/" + "resourceStringXY", function (data) {
    dataValues = data;
    myFunction();
});

My Rotativa Pdf Controller:

return new ViewAsPdf("PdfView", model)
{
   FileName = "PdfName.pdf",
   PageMargins = new Margins(15, 20, 15, 0),
   IsJavaScriptDisabled = false,
   CustomSwitches = cs
};

Somehow the JS Ajax call cannot be made, even if I use the wkhtmltopf customswitch options

"--no-stop-slow-scripts"

and

"--javascript-delay 25000"

When I simply return the View as a View, I get the Ajax data without any problems. I dont get a js error or something like that. Is there maybe any possibilty to get .Net resources in my Js on the Pdf View instead of Ajax?

Thx for helping :)

Answer 1

It seems like Rotativa doesn't support ajax calls. And because the site is processed by Rotativa and not in a browser or something there is no way to fix this. And this is also the reason why you get no js error showing in your browser console.

I see two solutions here for you.

• Generate the PDF differently
• Serialize all your strings into a json string and put it into the HTML. From there use javascript to read it again.

You could write a Helper class like this.

public class TranslationStrings
{
    public Dictionary<string, string> Strings { get; set; }

    public TranslationStrings()
    {
        //init translation dictionary in constructor
        Strings = new Dictionary<string, string>
        {
            //All the keys you need
            {"resourceStringXY" , Resources.General.resourceStringXY},
            {"resourceStringAB" , Resources.General.resourceStringAB}
        };
    }

    //simple Method to serialize the dictionary.
    public string GetJsonString()
    {
        JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        return js.Serialize(Strings);
    }
}

Then you can simple put the Json string in the ViewBag like this.

ViewBag.translations = new TranslationStrings().GetJsonString();

In the cshtml view you can write it in a javascript variable. I save it as a child of window, so its globaly accessible in you javascript.

<script type="text/javascript">
    window.translations = @(Html.Raw(ViewBag.translations));
</script>

Than you should be available to access the string like this.

window.translations["resourceStringXY"]