Often I am converting HTML documents to PDF, as this seems to be the easiest way to create dynamic PDF’s populated with a variety of data. ExpertPDF has been my favorite tool and I wanted to share my latest experience. Their site was not the prettiest site, and the feature list was a little too much to read. It would have been nice to be able to see a list of features, than a release schedule. I was initially hesitant in trying out yet another component for converting HTML to PDF.
The install went quick, and I added the component as a reference to an existing project I was working with. I wanted quickly get to where the rubber meets the road to see what the PDF would look like an a report I was having challenges getting to render properly. My quick test was to set anonymous access to file, and point the tool to the page. I was amazed at the speed and clarity of the PDF. It rendered perfectly out of the gates.
Anonymous access to HTML files is not very common in my world, so I needed to get in to the security and figure out how to lock my report back down, but still be able to get the rendering engine to load my PDF. The security credentials were easy to load, and the sample code that ExperPDF had put together showed 2 methods, one of which was to use the credentials of the current user, rather than some server side credentials. This was a nice bonus.
After locking down the HTML report (aspx page), and wanted to try something a little more challenging. I needed to render a PDF with custom margins, orientation, header, footer, etc… and then secure it before the emailed it off. Another set of tasks that just came easy with ExpertPDF. The level of control that the control provides has been outstanding. Their documentation is easy to follow and the processes make sense.
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