Printing PDF in ASP.NET Core 3.1 Razor Pages

Question

In my quest to learn ASP.NET core I've created a simple CRUD application using asp.net core 3.1. I want to print my Details page as a Invoice. I have looked around and it seems like printing PDF in full .NET Framework was more available.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I have come across free libraries like SelectPDF, WKHTMLTOPDF, PDFSharp but quiet frankly the samples are pre- asp.net core and cannot quiet integrate it with ASP.NET Core Razor Pages. Actually, if I'm not mistaken some of the libraries mentioned above are not compatible with Razor Pages.

Answer 1

I have come across free libraries like SelectPDF, WKHTMLTOPDF, PDFSharp but quiet frankly the samples are pre- asp.net core and cannot quiet integrate it with asp.net core Razor Pages.

I suggest that you could use client side library.Because what you metioned are all server side libraries,they all need to find the view and convert to string.As far as I known,it seems no such direct method to convert razor pages to string.So I suggest that you could use jsPDF library.

Here is a whole working demo:

@page
@model DetailsModel
<div id="details">       //be sure add this id...

    <h1>Details</h1>

    <div>
        <h4>test</h4>
        <hr />
        <dl class="row">
            <dt class="col-sm-2">
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.test.Name)
            </dt>
            <dd class="col-sm-10">
                @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.test.Name)
            </dd>
        </dl>
    </div>
    <div>
        <a asp-page="./Edit" asp-route-id="@Model.test.Id">Edit</a> |
        <a asp-page="./Index">Back to List</a>
    </div>
</div>

<button onclick="javascript:demoFromHTML();">Generate PDF</button>

@section Scripts
{
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jspdf/1.3.2/jspdf.min.js"></script>
    <script>
        function demoFromHTML() {
            var pdf = new jsPDF('p', 'pt', 'letter');
            // source can be HTML-formatted string, or a reference
            // to an actual DOM element from which the text will be scraped.
            source = $('#details')[0];

            // we support special element handlers. Register them with jQuery-style
            // ID selector for either ID or node name. ("#iAmID", "div", "span" etc.)
            // There is no support for any other type of selectors
            // (class, of compound) at this time.
            specialElementHandlers = {
                // element with id of "bypass" - jQuery style selector
                '#bypassme': function (element, renderer) {
                    // true = "handled elsewhere, bypass text extraction"
                    return true
                }
            };
            margins = {
                top: 80,
                bottom: 60,
                left: 40,
                width: 522
            };
            // all coords and widths are in jsPDF instance's declared units
            // 'inches' in this case
            pdf.fromHTML(
                source, // HTML string or DOM elem ref.
                margins.left, // x coord
                margins.top, { // y coord
                'width': margins.width, // max width of content on PDF
                'elementHandlers': specialElementHandlers
            },

                function (dispose) {
                    // dispose: object with X, Y of the last line add to the PDF
                    //          this allow the insertion of new lines after html
                    pdf.save('Test.pdf');
                }, margins);
        }
    </script>
}