iTextSharp: Convert a Text File to PDF While Uploading in ASP.NET

Francis S Michael

4.33/5 (5 votes)

Feb 19, 2015

CPOL

22893

iTextSharp: Convert a text file to PDF while uploading in ASP.NET

CodeProjectiTextSharp is the most popular PDF Library to create, modify and do some additional manipulation with PDF files. In this article, I’m going to explain how to convert a text file to PDF while uploading.

Ground Work

Before starting, we need to download the iTextSharp PDF library from this url. Alternatively, we can download the same from NuGet Gallary, into your project solution by using the “NuGet Package Manager”, if you are using Visual Studio. This can be depicted below with screen shots.

Code

For the sake of simplicity, I have designed the webform with an upload control and a button. So the markup looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
        <div>
            <asp:Label ID="lbl" runat="server" 
            Text="Select a file to upload:"></asp:Label>
            <asp:FileUpload runat="server" ID="fu" /><br />
            <asp:Button runat="server" ID="btnUpload" 
            Text="Upload" OnClick="btnUpload_Click" />
        </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Also the code behind contains the below code:

protected void btnUpload_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // Check that upload control had file
            if(fu.HasFile)
            {
                // Get the Posted File
                HttpPostedFile pf = fu.PostedFile;
                Int32 fileLen;
                // Get the Posted file Content Length
                fileLen = fu.PostedFile.ContentLength;
                // Create a byte array with content length
                Byte[] Input = new Byte[fileLen];
                // Create stream
                System.IO.Stream myStream;
                 // get the stream of uploaded file
                myStream = fu.FileContent;
                // Read from the stream
                myStream.Read(Input, 0, fileLen);
                // Create a Document
                Document doc = new Document();
                // create PDF File and create a writer on it
                PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, new FileStream
                (string.Concat(Server.MapPath("~/Pdf/PdfSample"), 
                ".pdf"), FileMode.Create));
                // open the document
                doc.Open();
                // Add the text file contents
                doc.Add(new Paragraph(System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetString(Input)));
                // Close the document
                doc.Close();
            }
        }

When you run the application, it will display an upload control and a button to upload.
After the conversion, the PDF file stored under the “PDF” folder. As per the code, it is necessary to create the folder named “PDF” before you run the application, within your solution.

Happy coding!!!