After researching available .NET PDF generators and finding them too expensive for a non-profit organization site I built this past winter, I decided to write my own generator using the open source ITextSharp (http://itextsharp.sourceforge.net/) library.  The generator reads an XML file that defines the report layout, database connection string, SQL query, etc. and writes the pdf output to the response stream to either be opened or saved by the user.  Alternately, it can bound to an open datasource using syntax similar to binding to a datagrid/view, etc.  You can see the results at http://www.ctamaine.org/Centers/tabid/63/Default.aspx - click on the Make PDF button to generate the PDF. Although this approach met the need for this particular module, I hope to someday extend it much further to include image generation, better paging and header/footer control, etc.  and to offer it as a templated custom server control. In the meantime, I would be happy to provide a zip of my source code to others for inspiration. I did feel somewhat frustrated and inefficient in wrapping the ITextSharp library objects with more ASP.NET object oriented classes that paralleled those used for datagrid cells, rows, cell attributes, etc. ITextSharp was originally ported from Java and retains much of the flavor of the Java version.

If you are looking for a DNN module to generate PDF from SQL queries, OnyakTech offers the most reasonably priced and quite capable OnyakTech Reports (http://www.onyaktech.com)

There is also a helpful How-to-Select guide on PDF generators (http://www.howtoselectguides.com/dotnet/pdf/#sc_generators) which I did not come across until after I wrote my generator.

For your further research, some of the commercially available PDF generators that I examined were:

ABCpdf.NET (http://www.abcpdf.com/)
Easy PDF (http://www.pdfonline.com/easypdf/sdk/index.htm)
Siberix Report Writer (http://www.siberix.com/)
Dynamic PDF (http://www.cete.com/Products/GeneratorForNET/)

---

Bill, WESNet Designs
Team Lead - DotNetNuke Gallery Module Project (Not Actively Being Developed)
Extensions Forge Projects . . .
Current: UserExport, ContentDeJour, ePrayer, DNN NewsTicker, By Invitation
Coming Soon: FRBO-For Rent By Owner

If you’re still interested in my code for PDF Generator (based on iTextSharp), I have finally written some very limited documentation, corrected a couple of bugs, implemented several additional capabilities in the PDFGrid report section, and written an ASP.NET demonstration page that shows off some of the PDF Generators capabilities.

 

The demo may be seen on the Projects -> PDF Generator page of my website http://www.wesnetdesigns.com.

 

I have posted both an install version (iTextSharp.dll and PDFGenerator.dll only plus documentation and sample reports) and a VS2003/VB.NET source version as ZIP files on my website’s Downloads page.  You will need to first register to see these downloads. PDF Generator is offered free, but without any promise of support.

 

Sorry it took so long – I have been very busy with the launch of a new DNN site for my church and in the writing of several custom modules for another site.

 

Let me know if you have any questions or problems in downloading the files.

---

Bill, WESNet Designs
Team Lead - DotNetNuke Gallery Module Project (Not Actively Being Developed)
Extensions Forge Projects . . .
Current: UserExport, ContentDeJour, ePrayer, DNN NewsTicker, By Invitation
Coming Soon: FRBO-For Rent By Owner