MVC Controller - Getting Started¶

A Complete example for creating a hellow world PDF file from an MVC Controller in C#

Nuget Packages¶

Make sure you install the Nuget Packages

https://www.nuget.org/packages/Scryber.Core.Mvc

This will add the latest version of the Scryber.Core nuget package, and the Scryber.Core.Mvc extension methods.

Add the XML Schema files to help with the intellisense

https://www.nuget.org/packages/Scryber.Core.Schemas/

Add a document template¶

In our applications we like to add our templates to a PDF folder the Views folder. You can break it down however works for you, but for a create a new XML file called HelloWorld.pdfx in your folder.

And paste the following content into the file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<pdf:Document xmlns:pdf="http://www.scryber.co.uk/schemas/core/release/v1/Scryber.Components.xsd"
          xmlns:styles="http://www.scryber.co.uk/schemas/core/release/v1/Scryber.Styles.xsd"
          xmlns:data="http://www.scryber.co.uk/schemas/core/release/v1/Scryber.Data.xsd">
    <Pages>
        <pdf:Page>
            <Content>
                <pdf:Label>Hello World, from scryber.</pdf:Label>
            </Content>
    </pdf:Page>
    </Pages>
</pdf:Document>

Your solution should look something like this.

For for more information on the namespaces and mappings see this [About Namespaces](namespaces-and-assemblies) documentation

Controller code¶

Add a new controller to your project, and a couple of namespaces are important to add to the top of your controller.

using Scryber.Components;
using Scryber.Components.Mvc;

Add the Web host service¶

In order to nicely reference files in your view, add a reference to the IWebHostEnvironment to your home controller constructor.

private readonly IWebHostEnvironment _env;

public HomeController(IWebHostEnvironment environment)
{
    _env = environment;
}

Add a Controller Method¶

Next add a new Controller Method to your class for retrieve and generate

public IActionResult HelloWorld()
{
    var path = _env.ContentRootPath;
    path = System.IO.Path.Combine(path, "Views", "PDF", "HelloWorld.pdfx");

    return this.PDF(path);
}

The PDF externsion method will read the PDF template from the path and generate the file to the response.

Testing your action¶

To create your pdf simply add a link to your action method in a view.

<div>
    <h2 class="display-4">Simple sample from the PDF Controller</h2>
    <ul>
        <li><a href='@Url.Action("HelloWorld","Home")' target='_blank'>Hello World PDF</a></li>
    </ul>

</div>

Running your application, you should see the link and clicking on it will open the pdf in a new tab or window.