create pdf from asp.net

[Robin]

I am looking to create a pdf from ASP.NET which is based on a word or pdf
document plus some data that will be added at runtime. Is there any
code/components that allow this to be achieved?

 

[Ken Cox [Microsoft MVP]]

Hi Robin,

You didn't say what your budget is. If you need it to be free, try this:

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

If you want to go first class and have money, try this:

http://www.cete.com/Products/Generator/

Ken

 

[Mark Rae]

If you want to go first class and have money, try this:

http://www.cete.com/Products/Generator/

This doesn't actually convert a Word document to PDF, though...

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

re:

This doesn't actually convert a Word document to PDF, though...

This one does :
http://neevia.com/developer/

So does Aspose.Word :
http://www.aspose.com/




Juan T. Llibre
ASP.NET MVP
===========

 

[Mark Rae]

This one does :
http://neevia.com/developer/

Yep - and as soon as they have a native .NET assembly version available
instead of the current ActiveX control version, I'll be purchasing it.

So does Aspose.Word :
http://www.aspose.com/

Does it?

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

re:

Does it?

http://www.aspose.com/Products/Aspose.Word/Intro/Overview.html

Open Word 97, Word 2000,
Word XP and Word 2003 documents.

Save documents in plain text, HTML or Aspose.Pdf.Xml format
that can be used by Aspose.Pdf to produce PDF files.


It looks like you need both Aspose.Word and Aspose.pdf
to do a full conversion, but you *can* get there from here.



re:

Yep - and as soon as they have a native .NET assembly version available
instead of the current ActiveX control version, I'll be purchasing it.

Good choice.

Disclaimer : I'm not connected to either company.

Good luck !



Juan T. Llibre
ASP.NET MVP
===========

 

[Mark Rae]

Good choice.

Actually, extremely BAD choice! I've just had an email from Neevia support
that they don't intend to release a native .NET assembly because they can't
see the point of doing so...

Talk about blinkered!

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

Don't despair.

Com Interop/DCOM work pretty good in ASP.NET
They have full instructions at their website.

Are you concerned about performance ?



Juan T. Llibre
ASP.NET MVP
===========

 

[Mark Rae]

Don't despair.

Com Interop/DCOM work pretty good in ASP.NET
They have full instructions at their website.

Are you concerned about performance ?

No - I'm concerned about the fact that I can't install software on my public
website because my ISP won't allow me to.

Here's a reply from their technical support which makes hilarious reading...

"a .NET assembly will not solve your problem - you will also have to install
the full DC Pro installer on that server - the reason for this is that
Document Converter Pro requires some PostScript printer drivers in order to
convert ms office documents and these drivers are installed by the main
installer. I don't think that any ISP will allow you to do that.

PS. DC Pro has a Adobe Distiller-like workflow, this means that in order to
convert a ms word document into PDF it will first open this document in ms
word, print it into a postscript file and then convert the resulting PS file
into PDF."

Not only do they expect me to install their ActiveX control on my public
hosted site; they also need Microsoft Office too.

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

Aargh!

If you're not allowed, by your ISP, to install software,
then you're pretty much up a creek, since the Aspose
Word/PDF combo would need installation, too.




Juan T. Llibre
ASP.NET MVP
===========

 

[Mark Rae]

If you're not allowed, by your ISP, to install software,
then you're pretty much up a creek, since the Aspose
Word/PDF combo would need installation, too.

I don't think that's particularly unusual... I can understand totally why
ISP's don't allow software to be installed - just think of the damage that
could be done!

Oh well - no doubt someone someday will write a native .NET PDF converter...

 

[Matt Berther]

Hello Mark,

I'm jumping into this thread late, but TallPDF [1] may have a component that
does what you need.

[1] http://www.tallpdf.net

 

[Mark Rae]

I'm jumping into this thread late, but TallPDF [1] may have a component
that does what you need.

[1] http://www.tallpdf.net

Not as far as I can see - which of their products were you thinking of?

 

[Matt Berther]

Hello Mark,

http://www.tallpdf.net/Default.aspx?id=pdfkit

However, I just scrolled through the thread and noticed that in addition
to requiring stamping, you also wanted to convert from Word, which I dont
believe this product does.

If you can get the .doc into WordML, this product would do the trick with
an intermediary XSLT.

--
Matt Berther
http://www.mattberther.com

I'm jumping into this thread late, but TallPDF [1] may have a
component that does what you need.

[1] http://www.tallpdf.net

Not as far as I can see - which of their products were you thinking
of?

 

[Mark Rae]

If you can get the .doc into WordML, this product would do the trick with
an intermediary XSLT.

Yeah, but I can't... My ISP won't let me install software (I don't have a
dedicated server in their web space), so I need a solution which is
available as a native .NET assembly. E.g. I can use the Chilkat Zip and FTP
assemblies because they're available as a native .NET DLL which sits in the
\bin folder and is added as a reference into the ASP.NET project...

 

[Matt Berther]

Hello Mark,

TallPDF is a native .NET assembly that you just drop into the bin folder.
With a little research, Im sure you could find an XSLT to get doc files into
WordML.

Then the only responsibility you have would be to generate the XSLT to transform
the WordML file to the format required by TallPDF.

 

[Mark Rae]

TallPDF is a native .NET assembly that you just drop into the bin folder.

Yes indeed.

With a little research, Im sure you could find an XSLT to get doc files
into WordML.

Well, I've done a shedload of research, and damned if I can find anything...

Then the only responsibility you have would be to generate the XSLT to
transform the WordML file to the format required by TallPDF.

Hmm...

 

[Guest]

It is hard (if at all possible) to convert a .doc file to WordML format
without Word, however, you can require your users to save the word file as
Word XML before uploading the file to your web app. In your webapp, u can
have a custom XSL transform that converts Word XML to whatever format TallPDF
expects.