ASP.NET MVC - Save Generated HTML as PDF to folder - html

Question

I've generated an HTML page in MVC ASP.NET C#. (with html helpers)
I would like to automaticly save this page as a pdf in a specific folder
Currently, when someone submits a form it gets send to a DB, but I also want that [HttpPost] to turn that submitted form to a pdf
Example: http://example1234.com/Persons/details/15
How do i save this as a pdf?
private string datadir = null;
private string wkhtmltopdf = null;
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Create(Person person)
{
datadir = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["datadir"];
wkhtmltopdf = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["wkhtmltopdf"];
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
db.People.Add(person);
db.SaveChanges();
//here the PDF should be created
System.IO.File.WriteAllText("details/" + person.ID +".html"));
var pdf1 = new ProcessStartInfo(wkhtmltopdf);
pdf1.CreateNoWindow = true;
pdf1.UseShellExecute = false;
pdf1.WorkingDirectory = datadir + "tmp\\";
pdf1.Arguments = "-q -n --disable-smart-shrinking Pdf." + person.ID + ".html Pdf." + person.ID + ".pdf";
using (var process = Process.Start(pdf1))
{
process.WaitForExit(99999);
Debug.WriteLine(process.ExitCode);
}
return View(person);
}

Answer 1

posted it as an answer to one of my other questons, but it also applies here so here you go for those interested.
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Create(Person person)
datadir = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["datadir"];
//datadirectory defined in Web.config
//also possible to hardcode it here, example: "c:/windows/PDFfolder"
wkhtmltopdf = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["wkhtmltopdf"];
//directory to the file "wkhtmltopdf", downloaded it somewhere
//just like above, defined at web.config possible to hardcode it in
ViewData["IsModelValid"] = ModelState.IsValid ? "true" : "false";
//valid checker
if (ModelState.IsValid) //check if valid
{
db.People.Add(person); //add to db
db.SaveChanges();
var fileContents1 = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(datadir + "Template.html");
//get template from datadirectory
fileContents1 = fileContents1.Replace("#NAME#", person.Name);
//replace '#NAME#' by the name from the database table person.Name
System.IO.File.WriteAllText(datadir + "tmp\\Template." + person.ID + ".html", fileContents1);
//create a new html page with the replaced text
//name of the file equals the ID of the person
var pdf1 = new ProcessStartInfo(wkhtmltopdf); //start process wkhtmltopdf
pdf1.CreateNoWindow = true; //don't create a window
pdf1.UseShellExecute = false; //don't use a shell
pdf1.WorkingDirectory = datadir + "tmp\\"; //where to create the pdf
pdf1.Arguments = "-q -n --disable-smart-shrinking Overeenkomst." + person.ID + ".html Overeenkomst." + person.ID + ".pdf";
//get the html to convert and make a pdf with the same name in the same directory
}
return View(person);
}