ItextSharp Error on trying to parse html for pdf conversion

Question

I was using the ItextSharp module to convert the below listed html in to a pdf page.

        <div style="font-size: 18pt; font-weight: bold;">
    mma<br>mmar</div><br> <br>
    <div style="font-size: 14pt;">Click to View Pricing
    </div>
    <br>
    <div>
    <table>
    <tr><td> <a href="http://www.mma.com/fci" style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;"> FCI</a>:</td> 
<td><a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-014" style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;"> 78211-014</a></td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-009" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-009</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-006" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-006</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-007" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-007</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-003" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-003</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-005" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-005</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-008"
 style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-008</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-004" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-004</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-012" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-012</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-007LF" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-007LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-015LF" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-015LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-003LF"
 style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-003LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-009LF" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration:
underline;">78211-009LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-005LF" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-005LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-010LF" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-010LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-006LF"
 style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-006LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-014LF"
 style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-014LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-004LF" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-004LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-012LF"
 style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-012LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-008LF"
 style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-008LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td>
<a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-011LF" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-011LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td><a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-013LF" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-013LF</td></tr><tr><td></td> <td><a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-010" style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-010</td></tr><tr><td></td>
<td><a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=78211-015"
 style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;">78211-015</td></tr><tr><td> 
<a href="http://www.mma.com/souriau" 
style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;"> Souriau</a>:</td>
 <td><a href="http://www.mma.com/access/?pn=24JR124-3" style="color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;"> 24JR124-3</a></td></tr></table></div>

C# code to generate the html above :

 var html = new StringBuilder(@"<div style=""font-size: 18pt; font-weight: bold;"">Authorized Distributor</div><br> <br><div style=""font-size: 14pt;"">Click to View Pricing, Inventory, Delivery & Lifecycle Information:</div><br>");
            List<MfrBrandView> mfrBrands = MfrBrandView.Load(fileId);
            var uniquesuppliers = mfrBrands.GroupBy(t => new {t.Manufacturer,t.SupplierVirtualDirectory}).Select(g => g.First());
            html.Append("<div><table>");
            foreach (var uniquesupplier in uniquesuppliers)
            {
                var mfrPartNums =
                    mfrBrands.Where(t => t.ManufacturerId == uniquesupplier.ManufacturerId).Select(
                        t => t.ManufacturerPartNumber).ToList();
                html.AppendFormat(@"<tr><td> <a href=""http://www.mma.com/{0}"" style=""color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;""> {1}</a>:</td> <td><a href=""http://www.mma.com/access/?pn={2}"" style=""color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;""> {2}</a></td></tr>", uniquesupplier.SupplierVirtualDirectory, uniquesupplier.MouserizationLabel, mfrPartNums[0]);

                for (int i = 1; i < mfrPartNums.Count(); i++)
                {
                    html.AppendFormat(
                        @"<tr><td></td> <td><a href=""http://www.mma.com/access/?pn={0}"" style=""color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;"">{0}</td></tr>",
                        mfrPartNums[i]);
                }
            }
            html.Append("</table></div>");
            return html.ToString();

Code to generate the page after html is formed:

PdfWriter writer = null;
            PdfDocument doc = null;
            //PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(content);
           // reader.Info["Title"]

            try
            {
                doc = new PdfDocument();
                doc.SetPageSize(PageSize.LETTER);
                writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, content);
                writer.CloseStream = false;
                doc.Open();
                doc.NewPage();

                foreach (IElement element in iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser.HTMLWorker.ParseToList(new StringReader(html), null))
                {
                    doc.Add(element);
                }
            }

below is where i get an exception saying "Unable to cast object of type 'iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser.CellWrapper' to type 'iTextSharp.text.Paragraph'." iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser.HTMLWorker.ParseToList(new StringReader(html), null)

Is there something wrong with the html I'm trying to parse? Is there a better way of doing this? Thanks much in advance for your help. It's very much appreciated.

Can you show us the C# code? You are trying make a Cell a Paragraph. Just one level too high. — The Internet
– The Internet, Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 17:26
Well..I'd guess that's the ItextSharp Parser that is trying to do so. I dont know if certain html elements are not allowed while trying to convert html to PDF using Itextsharp — karry
– karry, Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 18:18
Itextsharp doesnt like that I put my <a> tags inside the <td> tags. Looks like that is the issue. — karry
– karry, Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 16:29
yes....but not the way i exactly envisioned it.I had to put every <a> tag in a <div>. And had to make some compromises in terms of how I wanted my formatting on the page, because I couldn't arrange all the <a> tags in a table as required. — karry
– karry, Commented Aug 27, 2012 at 16:42
Better switch to iText7 and refer this stackoverflow.com/a/57251780/14784590 — Reejesh PK
– Reejesh PK, Commented Jul 4, 2023 at 7:03

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:10:17Z

25

+25

`HTMLWorker' has been deprecated in favor of XMLWorker. Here is a working example tested with a snippet of HTML like you used above:

StringReader html = new StringReader(@"
<div style='font-size: 18pt; font-weight: bold;'>
Mouser Electronics <br />Authorized Distributor</div><br /> <br />
<div style='font-size: 14pt;'>Click to View Pricing, Inventory, Delivery & Lifecycle Information:
</div>
<br />
<div>
<table>
<tr><td></td><td>
<a href='http://www.mouser.com/access/?pn=78211-009' 
style='color: Blue; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: underline;'>78211-009</a></td></tr>
</table></div>    
");      
using (Document document = new Document()) {
  PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, STREAM);
  document.Open();
  XMLWorkerHelper.GetInstance().ParseXHtml(
    writer, document, html
  );
}

When using XMLWorker you need to use well-formed HTML - it's an XML parser, after all. The sample HTML from your question above doesn't have closing <a> or <br> tags. A HTML parser like HtmlAgilityPack will fix those problems, and turn this:

<div><img src='a.gif'><br><hr></div>

into this:

<div><img src='a.gif' /><br /><hr /></div>

with only a few lines of code:

var hDocument = new HtmlDocument()
{
    OptionWriteEmptyNodes = true,
    OptionAutoCloseOnEnd = true
};
hDocument.LoadHtml("<div><img src='a.gif'><br><hr></div>");
var closedTags  = hDocument.DocumentNode.WriteTo();

XMLWorker is available as a nuget package, or as a separate download at sourceforge.

See here for more advanced usage of XMLWorker.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:10

CommunityBot

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answered Aug 29, 2012 at 15:59

goTo-devNull

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7 Comments

karry Over a year ago

Thanks ... That was a nice answer! We do not want to change from using the ITextsharp right now. Too far in to the project to do that.

karry Over a year ago

is there an efficient workaround for this? I was doing lines and lines of html for doing this...basically putting all the 'links' in div tags.This changes the originally planned formatting of the files.

goTo-devNull Over a year ago

XMLWorker is a separate download, but it IS used with iTextSharp. So you can use your original formatting (<table> tags) instead of wrapping the hyperlinks in <div> tags as in the sample code provided above. I'm not sure what you mean by using an efficient workaround - if you take a look at the first link I quoted above from the iText mailing list, it mentions that somewhere late in the 4.xx branch or in the 5.xx branch hyperlinks in table cells became broken, and that the iText development team has no plans to do further development on HTMLWorker.

karry Over a year ago

Sorry I misunderstood you! I thought you were talking about a completely different tool. I get what you're saying.

Mitat Koyuncu Over a year ago

This code successfully worked but Turkish characters are not showing at PDF document. How to set encoding for this code?

|

arrowd · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-01 18:25:42Z

0

Try the following code

    &lt;a href="http://www.abcd.com"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;

Here we are replacing < with &lt; and > with &gt; so my becomes <a> and becomes </a>.

edited Sep 1, 2012 at 18:25

arrowd

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answered Sep 1, 2012 at 18:10

PQubeTechnologies

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Comments

HDJEMAI · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-14 13:13:42Z

Here are the step what you need to do

1- Install itext sharp and XMLWorker from Itextsharp from nuget

2-Then put ur design in html(here Invoice.html) with inline CSS

3-Make sure all tag are ended properly like breakpoint or td(here I got error earlier)

4-here image wouldn't show locally so without wasting time I uploaded image in server and gave server Path to access Image.U can research more to run it locally.

Document doc = new Document();

PdfPTable tableLayout = new PdfPTable(4);

PdfWriter writer= PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, new FileStream(Server.MapPath("~/Admin/T13.pdf"), FileMode.Create));                 

doc.Open();

string contents = File.ReadAllText(Server.MapPath("~/Admin/invoice.html"));

StringReader sr = new StringReader(contents);


XMLWorkerHelper.GetInstance().ParseXHtml(writer, doc, sr);  

doc.Close();

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