Develop Reference

Html to pdf - how can we create a pdf file from html with textbox controls with CSS styles

I have a requirement where I need to write my asp.net page information into pdf file with the css styles(inline/style sheet file). While creating pdf we have to make the textboxes to labels with textbox like border and similar for dropdowns, checkboxes. Can you please help us on how to proceed?

Try DynamicPDF Converter for .NET, it is not a free tool but it can convert several different file types including HTML to PDF. It uses Internet Explorer (IE) to render the HTML and convert that to PDF. The formatting and styles of the resulting PDF will look similar to how your HTML is displayed in the IE’s print preview.
Disclaimer: I work for ceTe Software, the company that develops DynamicPDF libraries.

QLPreviewController and UIWebView do not display filled PDFs

I have a PDFthat has text boxes in it. My program uses Xfinium PDF software to fill the text boxes. When I view the filled in PDF the document shows up with no data in the fields. I have tried using QLPreviewController and UIWebView and they both do not display the filled in fields; however, if I email the document to myself and open it in Adobe DC on the iPad all the data shows up correctly. It may be important to note that even the mail app does not show the PDF correctly filled in.
Here is the PDF opened in Adobe on iPad
Here is the PDF opened in UIWebView in my app (also shows same way in QLPreviewController

PDF forms may bring along appearances or may rely on the viewer to create an appearance for the value of the field.
Fairly complete PDF viewers (like Adobe Reader or Foxit) can get along with both variants well. Incomplete viewers, though, like many so called previewers, require an existing appearance and display empty documents for forms which do not bring along appearances.
Thus, if you want your forms to be visible on incomplete viewers, too, provide appearances.

The QLPreviewController use the CGPDF* API to display the PDF files. The CGPDF* API has some limitations, it displays only the page content and it does not display annotations, no matter if they have appearances or not. Form fields use widget annotations to display the field content so they are also not displayed.
The solution here is to flatten the form fields. This operation will transform the form fields into page content and QLPreviewController will display the final file correctly. The downside of this operation is that the form fields are no longer editable.

The XFINIUM.PDF library creates apearance objects for field values. The problem is related to iOS PDF rendering engine which does not display annotations and form fields. The solution is to flatten the form fields if you want to view the files using the QLPreviewController.
The form fields are flattened with this line of code:
pdfDocumentObject.Form.FlattenFormFields();
Disclaimer: I work for the company that develops the XFINIUM.PDF library.

Both QuickLook and UIWebView/WKWebView uses Apple's internal and undocumented CorePDF framework, which has no code that would render PDF AcroForms (doesn't matter if backed by appearance streams or not)
You can either
1) Flatten the document on the server or with a client-side library.
2) Re-implement everything from scratch and add support for PDF forms. (See Page 431ff in Adobe's PDF Specifications - "Interactive Form Dictionary")
We did (2) in the commercially available PSPDFKit SDK. It doesn't use Apple's rendering engine as you do not have a way here to render appearance streams for PDF form widgets, so even with a lot of code you'll not be able to get the representation that is encoded in the document. For this you'll either have to result to private API or re-implement everything yourself. We also support (1) using the PSPDFProcessor class.

Thanks,
It works for me.
pdfDocumentObject.Form.FlattenFormFields();
Bala.

Generate PDF based on a Word document for each data item

There're a data list with hundreds of data items (suppose each item is a customer), and a predefined word document as template, the requirement is - for each data item, fill corresponding data into template fields, and generate a readonly PDF file as result.
Prefered platform is ASP.NET with C#.
I found two solutions:
Change the word document into a PDF form, and use iTextSharp to fill the form fields. But create the PDF form with correct format (font, layout, etc.) is a difficult work, and it needs particular tool and new skill when system user wants to add new template (unless the PDF form is always created by developer).
Add text placeholder in the word file, and the program can read word file, replace text, and convert into PDF. But I'm not sure which components should be used.
I'd like to get some advices on this problem. tks.
Update 20130416:
After some searching & experiments, my conclusion is below:
Client solution: use Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word (Office2007+plugin or Office2012) to read data, convert to pdf, etc. But this method running on server side may be unsafe.
Server solution:
Make PDF form, and use iTextSharp to fill the form fields. The disadvantage has been mentioned above.
Make HTML template, and replace field placeholders, and use iTextSharp+XMLWorker to convert HTML to PDF. The difficulty is create the HTML template manually and optimize the PDF effect.
MS SharePoint Office Automation Service is a server solution based on MS Office, perhaps this method will be easier, but it needs license and SharePoint server cost.
Finally, I chose the HTML template solution for this request. QED.

Another option would be to use Tx Text Control for ASP.NET. They have a
mailmerge feature that allows you to fill data into a word template.
The merged document can easily be saved as a pdf.

For the second option you can use iTextsharp or Aspose which supports the placeholder replacement and generation PDF, it supports creating files based on templates of MSWord and Openoffice which could be usefull for user who do not want to buy MSWord only to create a template.

Another option, you can use nustache templates, fill them with list data and then use xmlworker from ItextSharp to render to pdf.

How can i get "Table of content" from PDF file and save it to the tree struct?

I really need to get table of content from a pdf file.with Aspose.pdf.dll in C# asp.net
My questions are:
What page is it(for each item)?
What is the the text of each page
for each item in table of content?

Aspose.Pdf.Generator namespace only supports the feature to create TOC while generating new PDF and Aspose.Pdf for .NET does not support the feature to manipulate TOC in existing PDF file. However for the sake of implementation, the requirement is added in issue tracking system as PDFNEWNET-34836. Once the new feature becomes available, we would be able to get the information associated with each item in TOC.
PS, My name is Nayyer and I am Evangelist/Support developer at Aspose.

iTextSharp or XSL-FO to create a PDF dynamically with fillable forms?

This is my first stackoverflow question.
After days of research, I am still lost on how this can be done, if its even possible.
I am trying to create a PDF document using either iTextSharp or XSL-FO (FO.NET is what I am using currently). Creating the documnet is no problem. I need this documnet to have fields that the user can still fill in.
I am aware of the ability to create a PDF form using acrobat, then using iTextSharp to fill in those fields. This can then be saved and the user can open the document and edit it.
The problem with this is, anytime the PDF "template" needs to be changed, someone has to edit the PDF document, then change the backend logic to handle the new field.
I am looking for a 100% dynamic solution.
Ideally I would use XSL and FO to create this document without the need for an exisiting PDF document. I have found no way to create a fillable form using FO.NET, or even iTextSharp, without already having an exisiting PDF "template".
Thanks in advance.

I believe both the RenderX XEP and Antenna House FO processors support PDF Forms. They aren't free and additional output modules may be required for PDF Forms.