Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

I want to open a .PDF file on button click or hyperlink.

please help me.

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Where is the PDF? On your local machine, on a web server or stored in a database?

If you are using an <asp:Button or <asp:Hyperlink then you can double click it in design mode to create an event in the code behind. Any code to open the PDF can then be added in the event.

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

If you have the PDF file on your local machine or stored on a server you can add the path to the button's click event or in the HyperLink's NavigateUrl. You can do something as simple as the following assuming you have acrobat installed.

Response.Redirect("~/somePDFFile.pdf");

or using System.Net;

string pdfPath = Server.MapPath("~/SomePDFFile.pdf");
WebClient client = new WebClient();
Byte[] buffer = client.DownloadData(pdfPath);
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.AddHeader("content-length", buffer.Length.ToString());
Response.BinaryWrite(buffer);

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

If you mean you want to allow the user to view the file check below link

Download files in ASP.NET

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Try

Process.Start("pdffile.pdf") ;

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

what if i dont have acrobat installed? will it automatically download acrobat?

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Hi,

Here's some script used from dithered.com

function detectAcrobat()

{
var acrobat=new Object();

acrobat.installed=false;
acrobat.version='0.0';

if (navigator.plugins && navigator.plugins.length)
{
for ( var x = 0, l = navigator.plugins.length; x < l; ++x )
{
if (navigator.plugins[x].description.indexOf('Adobe Acrobat') != -1)
{
acrobat.version=parseFloat(navigator.plugins[x].description.split('Version ')[1]);

if (acrobat.version.toString().length == 1) acrobat.version+='.0';

acrobat.installed=true;
break;
}
}
}
else if (window.ActiveXObject)
{
for (x=2; x<10; x++)
{
try
{
oAcro=eval("new ActiveXObject('PDF.PdfCtrl."+x+"');");
if (oAcro)
{
acrobat.installed=true;
acrobat.version=x+'.0';
}
}
catch(e) {}
}

try
{
oAcro4=new ActiveXObject('PDF.PdfCtrl.1');
if (oAcro4)
{
acrobat.installed=true;
acrobat.version='4.0';
}
}
catch(e) {}

try
{
oAcro7=new ActiveXObject('AcroPDF.PDF.1');
if (oAcro7)
{
acrobat.installed=true;
acrobat.version='7.0';
}
}
catch(e) {}

}
alert(acrobat.installed);
alert(acrobat.version);

}
</script>

Check the version and redirect the user to the approriate location if adobe is not installed. AFAIK, this code is not 'truly' cross-browser.

HTH,
Suprotim Agarwal

-----
http://www.dotnetcurry.com
http://www.sqlservercurry.com
-----

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

I was able to get Process.Start() to work in VS2005 built-in server but not IIS. I tried many options using Process.StartInfo but no luck. Have you been able to get this to work in IIS?

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

(http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;q306654&lex).

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Hello Ispence!

i got your codes benificiary for my problem, but i have a question regarding the Server.MapPath(?) there if i give the Pdf name, then it shows the same PDf file for all of my records in my gridveiw, instead, i want to have a folder which will be containing all the PDF files for each single record, and i want the LinkField to open an aproperiate PDF file for a specific Record!

thanks in Advance

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

You will need to iterate through the folder that contains your PDFs to display each one. Here's a sample that adds them to a ListBox and when you select a PDF it gets displayed.

using System.IO;
using System.Net;


private string path = @"c:\PDF_Files\";


protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     if (!Page.IsPostBack)
     {
         DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(path);
         FileInfo[] fi = di.GetFiles();


         foreach (FileInfo file in fi)
         {
             ListBox1.Items.Add(file.Name);
         }
     }
}


protected void ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     WebClient client = new WebClient();
     Byte[] buffer = client.DownloadData(path + ListBox1.SelectedValue);
     Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
     Response.AddHeader("content-length", buffer.Length.ToString());
     Response.BinaryWrite(buffer);
}

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Thanks so much friend!

your codes really helped me, but not for my current prblm, i used it in a different application.

the PDFs working for my web page which has a GridView in it. what i did is:

I stored all the PDF files in a hard drive and then took a copy and paste it the "C:\Documents and Settings\mhelaman\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\MoIFacSurvey"

which is the folder which contains all the pages of my project.

problem was, if i stroed the PDFs in my Solution Explorer, then the website was getting loaded, now when i put them there in the Visual Studio 2008 folder, Will it again make my website loaded, or it is fine???

Thats my question, hope you can answer...

Thanks

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

I'm not sure I completely follow you, but no matter where you store them, they will not impact your website. They will only get loaded when you select them from within your GridView, which in turn will reference the folder location you have them stored in. If you are asking whether they will be loaded into memory when you start your website up, the answer is no. Does that answer your question?

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Exactly Ispence!

that was what i was aksing. but good that the answer is NO.

Thanks for you support.

Dear, I got another problem.

I got a TreeView in my web page, and beside i've put a GridView, the TreeView contains Countries and Provinces (ChildNode), what i want is that by clicking any provinces (ChildNode) of the tree View, I want the GridView to show the selected Node's Details.

I mean, there should be a GridView by default, containing one of the TreeView Node's data, and then by clicking on any of the other nodes, the GridView should change the data accordingly,

Is it something like i should define SQL query for each Node? if yes, shall i write the codes under "TreeView1.SelectedNodeChanged" ? if I try this, then i am not able to define a particular node.

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Thank you, Thank U THANK U !!!

This worked perfectly. But now how do I force the user to close the PDF before going back to do something else in the webpage?

I am getting greedy now.

BTW, I am using VB.NET not C#

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Hi...

The problem scenerio is that i have some doc files residing at "F:\\test\\*".

I want to list out and open doc files from my asp.net application on hyperlink click, language is C#.

I went through your pdf example but it results into error

An invalid character was found in text content. Line 1, Position 1

??
^

Please help...

mail me at sonusneh@gmail.com

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

This article should get you started:

http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/102109-1.aspx

Although it is in VB, you should be able to convert easy enough

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

Hey Ispence,

I'm using this snippet this way. I'm using a FileUpload control to upload files to a dir and show the uploaded files in ListBox user can double click the file name in the Listbox and open the file he uploaded & When he tries to upload a new file the code in the Page_Load executed and the Selection in Listbox is still there Itried ClearSelection() , SelectionIndex = -1. But the item is still selected. so it won't allow me to upload a new file in there. Please tell me if I'm missing anything here. Thanks

01.if (Request["__EVENTARGUMENT"] != null && Request["__EVENTARGUMENT"] == "click")
02.       {
03.           int idx = LstBxUploadedFiles.SelectedIndex;
04.           ListItem item = LstBxUploadedFiles.SelectedItem;
05.
06.           DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DocumentsLocation"] + "\\" + (string)Session["CreatedFolderName"]);
07.           FileInfo[] files = di.GetFiles();
08.           foreach (FileInfo fi in files)
09.           {
10.               if (fi.Name == item.Text)
11.               {
12.                   Response.ClearContent();
13.                   Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + fi.Name);
14.                   Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", fi.Length.ToString());
15.                   string CId = Request["__EVENTTARGET"];
16.                   LstBxUploadedFiles.ClearSelection();
17.                   Response.TransmitFile(fi.FullName);
18.                   Response.End();
19.
20.
21.               }
22.           }
23.
24.
25.       }
26.       LstBxUploadedFiles.Attributes.Add("ondblclick", ClientScript.GetPostBackEventReference(LstBxUploadedFiles, "click"));
27.       LstBxUploadedFiles.ClearSelection();

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

<div style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; font-size: 10pt; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; color: black; font-family: courier new;" mce_style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; font-size: 10pt; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; color: black; font-family: courier new;">Try this..</div><div style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; font-size: 10pt; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; color: black; font-family: courier new;" mce_style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; font-size: 10pt; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; color: black; font-family: courier new;">
</div><div style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; font-size: 10pt; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; color: black; font-family: courier new;" mce_style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; font-size: 10pt; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; color: black; font-family: courier new;">Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment; filename=testpdf.pdf");
Response.TransmitFile( Server.MapPath("~/testpdf.pdf") );
Response.End();</div>

Note: If you installed pdf plugin to your browser, it will automatically displayed.

The above code will display save dialog to save pdf even if you have a browser with pdf plugin installed. So that the user can download directly instead of displaying it in browser and then saving..

Best of luck

rafemuhammed

MCA

Re: Open PDF file on button click or hyperlink from asp.net

You can use HTML tag called <iframe> and src attribute as, pdf path this will display the pdf automatically, there are some attributes with URL called toolbar=no&menu=no etc. These will hide the pdf toolbar and menu options. If you want to show pdf for terms and conditions kind, then this will be very useful.

Thanks.