how to pass html as a string using wkhtmltopdf?

Eugene picture Eugene · Jan 10, 2011 · Viewed 30.2k times · Source

how to pass html as a string instead of url in wkhtmltopdf using asp.net, c#?

Answer

Daniel Little picture Daniel Little · Jul 22, 2011

STDIn and STDOut have been redirected in this example, so you shouldn't need files at all.

public static class Printer
{
    public const string HtmlToPdfExePath = "wkhtmltopdf.exe";

    public static bool GeneratePdf(string commandLocation, StreamReader html, Stream pdf, Size pageSize)
    {
        Process p;
        StreamWriter stdin;
        ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();

        psi.FileName = Path.Combine(commandLocation, HtmlToPdfExePath);
        psi.WorkingDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(psi.FileName);

        // run the conversion utility
        psi.UseShellExecute = false;
        psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
        psi.RedirectStandardInput = true;
        psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
        psi.RedirectStandardError = true;

        // note: that we tell wkhtmltopdf to be quiet and not run scripts
        psi.Arguments = "-q -n --disable-smart-shrinking " + (pageSize.IsEmpty? "" : "--page-width " + pageSize.Width +  "mm --page-height " + pageSize.Height + "mm") + " - -";

        p = Process.Start(psi);

        try {
            stdin = p.StandardInput;
            stdin.AutoFlush = true;
            stdin.Write(html.ReadToEnd());
            stdin.Dispose();

            CopyStream(p.StandardOutput.BaseStream, pdf);
            p.StandardOutput.Close();
            pdf.Position = 0;

            p.WaitForExit(10000);

            return true;
        } catch {
            return false;

        } finally {
            p.Dispose();
        }
    }

    public static void CopyStream(Stream input, Stream output)
    {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[32768];
        int read;
        while ((read = input.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0) {
            output.Write(buffer, 0, read);
        }
    }
}