iTextSharp generate PDF and show it on the browser directly

How to open the PDF file after created using iTextSharp on ASP.Net? I don’t want to save it on the server, but directly when the new PDF is generated, it shows on the browser. Is it possible to do that?

Here is the example for what I mean: Click here . But on this example, the file directly downloaded.

How can I do that?

    Dim doc1 = New Document()

    'use a variable to let my code fit across the page...
    Dim path As String = Server.MapPath("PDFs")
    PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc1, New FileStream(path & "/Doc1.pdf", FileMode.Create))

    doc1.Open()
    doc1.Add(New Paragraph("My first PDF"))
    doc1.Close()

The code above do save the PDF to the server.

Thank you very much in advance! 🙂

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

You need to set Content Type of the Response object and add the binary form of the pdf in the header

 private void ReadPdfFile()
    {
        string path = @"C:Somefile.pdf";
        WebClient client = new WebClient();
        Byte[] buffer =  client.DownloadData(path);

        if (buffer != null)
        {
            Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"; 
            Response.AddHeader("content-length",buffer.Length.ToString()); 
            Response.BinaryWrite(buffer); 
        }

    }

(or) you can use System.IO.MemoryStream to read and display:

Here you can find that way of doing it

Open Generated pdf file through code directly without saving it onto the disk

Method 2

The problem solved with the code below:

    HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
    HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=GridViewExport.pdf")
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache)

    Dim pdfDoc As New Document()
    PdfWriter.GetInstance(pdfDoc, HttpContext.Current.Response.OutputStream)

    pdfDoc.Open()
    'WRITE PDF <<<<<<

    pdfDoc.Add(New Paragraph("My first PDF"))

    'END WRITE PDF >>>>>
    pdfDoc.Close()

    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(pdfDoc)
    HttpContext.Current.Response.End()

Hope help! 🙂

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0