Rotativa.AspNetCore v1.2 and v1.1 ViewAsPdf.BuildFile creates a hanging process to wkhtmltopdf.exe in IIS 8.5

[neualex]

Call to ViewAsPdf.BuildFile, see code below, using .NET Core 3.1 with either Rotativa.AspNetCore nuget library v1.2 and v1.1 on IIS 8.5 creates a hanging process to wkhtmltopdf.exe

Rotativa.AspNetCore.ViewAsPdf viewAsPdf = new Rotativa.AspNetCore.ViewAsPdf(model);
byte[] pdfData = await viewAsPdf.BuildFile(ControllerContext);

It works as expected locally using IISExpress, but as soon as it is deployed to IIS 8.5, the call hangs on wkhtmltopdf.exe

Thoughts on how to solve this?

[RichardSobreiro]

I had the some problem a few weeks ago. In order to fix this in my case a have to download all static files (css, js, etc) from external sources loaded in my web page and put it at the root folder. Somehow wkhtmltopdf was hanging when calling the external urls to downlaod them.

[neualex]

@RichardSobreiro I tried using a plain view without a layout, it works locally with IISExpress, but not on IIS 8.5, I get the error below when I manually kill the wkhtmltopdf.exe process on the server, any thoughts on this error?

System.Exception
at Rotativa.AspNetCore.WkhtmlDriver.Convert(String wkhtmlPath, String switches, String html, String wkhtmlExe)
at Rotativa.AspNetCore.WkhtmltopdfDriver.ConvertHtml(String wkhtmltopdfPath, String switches, String html)
at Rotativa.AspNetCore.ViewAsPdf.CallTheDriver(ActionContext context)
at Rotativa.AspNetCore.AsResultBase.BuildFile(ActionContext context)
at ITHub.Web.UI.Controllers.SMAController.GeneratePDF() in C:\Git\ITHub\ITHub.Web.UI\Controllers\SMAController.cs:line 92
at lambda_method.lambda_method(Closure , Object )
at Microsoft.Extensions.Internal.ObjectMethodExecutorAwaitable.Awaiter.GetResult()
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ActionMethodExecutor.AwaitableResultExecutor.Execute(IActionResultTypeMapper mapper, ObjectMethodExecutor executor, Object controller, Object[] arguments)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.g__Awaited|12_0(ControllerActionInvoker invoker, ValueTask`1 actionResultValueTask)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.g__Awaited|10_0(ControllerActionInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Rethrow(ActionExecutedContextSealed context)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeInnerFilterAsync()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.g__Awaited|24_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.Rethrow(ResourceExecutedContextSealed context)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.InvokeFilterPipelineAsync()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.g__Awaited|17_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task task, IDisposable scope)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing.EndpointMiddleware.g__AwaitRequestTask|6_0(Endpoint endpoint, Task requestTask, ILogger logger)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization.AuthorizationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.AuthenticationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.EntityFrameworkCore.MigrationsEndPointMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.EntityFrameworkCore.DatabaseErrorPageMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.EntityFrameworkCore.DatabaseErrorPageMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.DeveloperExceptionPageMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)