ActionAsPdf

[ochicaud]

Hello,
could it be possible to have also an ActionAsPdf tool

just like in the https://github.com/arichika/RotativaCore project ?

thank you very much

[ArjanKw]

Personally, I would say it's cleaner to use the file extension to specify what the type of output will be. URLs ending with .pdf will then result in PDF output, and .html for the regular view. This follows the URL convention better than having a URL part in the middle of the URL to be responsible for the type of output.

This is how you could implement it.

Example usage inside Startup.cs:

endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
    name: "impactreport-quality-default",
    pattern: "{controller}/{action}/{display:regex(view|download)}/{profileId:int}/impactreport-{year:int}.{type:regex(pdf|html|png)}");

Inside the controller:

    /// <summary>
    /// View or download a yearly impact report.
    /// </summary>
    public async Task<IActionResult> Year(string display, string language, int profileId, int year, string type)
    {
            // Generate the year report.

            // Now display the result.
            if (type == "png")
            {
                return new ViewAsImage($"~/Views/ImpactReport/Year.cshtml", model)
                {
                    Format = Rotativa.Options.ImageFormat.png,
                    Quality = 50,
                    FileName = $"impactreport-{year}.png",
                    ContentDisposition = display == "download" : ContentDisposition.Attachment : ContentDisposition:Inline
                };
            } else if (type == "pdf")
            {
                return new ViewAsPdf($"~/Views/ImpactReport/Year.cshtml", model)
                {
                    FileName = $"impactreport-{year}.pdf",
                    ContentDisposition = display == "download" : ContentDisposition.Attachment : ContentDisposition:Inline
                };
            }
            else
            {
                return View(model);
            }
    }

The documentation might be a bit lacking in simplicity, as it uses an action per view type. So we might need to expand that.

Regardless of above, the feature could be added. Benefit is more ways to achieve the desired result. Drawback is it might be more difficult to understand what to use and when. Also the current PR limits the options you have on how to generate the PDF/image, if I'm correct? @webgio what is your take on this?