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Send PDF to the browser rather than saving to the server - ASP.NET iText 7 C# Web Forms

this is my first time posting on SO
I have been using iText 7 so users of my web app can generate a pdf of a document.
I would like the document sent to the browser so either it gets saved to the user Downloads folder or the user can choose where to save it with the browser save dialog box.
However, all the C# examples I have found require a hard-coded path & file name, so it gets saved on the server rather than client machines.
I have been researching this for a few days now and floundering around with solutions, this is what I have:
public void mtdCreatePDF()
{
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=print.pdf");
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
var stream = new MemoryStream();
var writer = new PdfWriter(stream);
var pdf = new PdfDocument(writer);
var document = new Document(pdf);
document.Add(new Paragraph("Hello world!"));
document.Close();
Response.Write(document);
Response.End();
}
This creates print.pdf in browser Downloads folder, but the file is corrupt.
I would be grateful if someone could point out where I am going wrong, the majority of articles in this regard relate to the older itextsharp, and the iText 7 examples have hard-coded file paths and file names.
I have found one possible solution that looks good, but unfortunately it is in Java. I've been floundering around for ages trying to convert it to C#, but I don't know any Java so it's turned into a pig's breakfast. This is the Java solution:
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
PdfDocument pdfDoc = new PdfDocument(new PdfWriter(baos));
Document doc = new Document(pdfDoc);
doc.add(new Paragraph("Hello world!"));
doc.close();
// setting some response headers
response.setHeader("Expires", "0");
response.setHeader("Cache-Control",
"must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
response.setHeader("Pragma", "public");
// setting the content type
response.setContentType("application/pdf");
// the contentlength
response.setContentLength(baos.size());
// write ByteArrayOutputStream to the ServletOutputStream
OutputStream os = response.getOutputStream();
baos.writeTo(os);
os.flush();
os.close();
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

This solution seems to be working perfectly.
public void mtdCreatePDF()
{
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=print.pdf");
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
var stream = new MemoryStream();
var writer = new PdfWriter(stream);
var pdf = new PdfDocument(writer);
var document = new Document(pdf);
document.Add(new Paragraph("Hello world!"));
document.Close();
Response.BinaryWrite(stream.ToArray());
Response.End();
}

WebForm Server.Transfer - Variables are not being recorded in downloaded files

I'm using Server.Transfer and in the 2nd place I have a number of labels that are updated with a Request.Form["textbox_text"];
This all works really well, but the problem is I also want to write the content in that textbox to file
like a word document using this method
Response.Clear();
Response.AddHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename=Word.doc");
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
Response.ContentType = "application / vnd.ms -word";
Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode;
Response.BinaryWrite(System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetPreamble());
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
htw.Write("<table><h2><b>[ Text ]</b></h2><br>" + TextBox_name.Text + "</table>");
Response.Write(sw.ToString());
Response.End();
But whenever I check the file it will not have anything written on it. I've even tried to save the value of a Request.Form to a static variable and then write that variable but without any success.

How are you using Server.Transfer()? Post that code, make sure you are using the overload that preserves the form values:
Server.Transfer("page.aspx", true);

save Pdf File in the particular folder instead of downloading

I am doing html to pdf file . Its Downloading instantly . I dont want download instantly. i want to save the file in my project folder once converted.
My C# Code
string html ="<table><tr><td>some contents</td></tr></table>";
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=WelcomeLetter.pdf");
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
StringReader sr = new StringReader(table);
Document ResultPDF = new Document(iTextSharp.text.PageSize.A4, 25, 10, 20, 30);
PdfPTable Headtable = new PdfPTable(7);
Headtable.TotalWidth = 525f;
Headtable.LockedWidth = true;
Headtable.HeaderRows = 5;
Headtable.FooterRows = 2;
Headtable.KeepTogether = true;
HTMLWorker htmlparser = new HTMLWorker(ResultPDF);
PdfWriter.GetInstance(ResultPDF, Response.OutputStream);
ResultPDF.Open();
htmlparser.Parse(sr);
ResultPDF.Close();
Response.Write(ResultPDF);
Response.End();

For saving pdf file locally in your project folder you can use FileStream class like this.
FileStream stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create);//Here filePath is path of your project folder.
Now use this stream instead of using Response.OutputStream when you create instance of PdfWriter object.
PdfWriter.GetInstance(ResultPDF, stream);
Now do not use Responce.Write as you don't want to download your file.And close your stream at end.
stream.Close();

I'm going to combine everyone's answer into one that you should be able to drop in and use. If this works, I would accept Manish Parakhiya's answer because that had the most important part.
First, I'm going to assume you are using a recent version of iTextSharp. I think 5.5.5 is the most recent version. Second, because of this, I'm going to restructure your code a bit in order to use the using pattern. If you're stuck on an older obsolete unsupported version like 4.1.6 you'll need to re-adjust.
Almost every tutorial out there shows you that you can bind directly the Response.OutputStream. This is 100% valid but I would argue that it is also a really bad idea. Instead, bind to a more generic MemoryStream. This makes debugging much easier and your code will port and adapt that much easier.
The below code includes comments about each of the changes and what things are actually doing. The top section is all about creating a PDF from a string of HTML. The bottom actually does something with it, including writing it to disk and/or streaming it to a browser.
//Will hold our PDF eventually
Byte[] bytes;
//HTML that we want to parse
string html = "<table><tr><td>some contents</td></tr></table>";
//Create a MemoryStream to write our PDF to
using (var ms = new MemoryStream()) {
//Create our document abstraction
using (var ResultPDF = new Document(iTextSharp.text.PageSize.A4, 25, 10, 20, 30)) {
//Bind a writer to our Document abstraction and our stream
using (var writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(ResultPDF, ms)) {
//Open the PDF for writing
ResultPDF.Open();
//Parse our HTML using the old, obsolete, not support parser
using (var sw = new StringWriter()) {
using (var hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw)) {
using (var sr = new StringReader(html)) {
using (var htmlparser = new HTMLWorker(ResultPDF)) {
htmlparser.Parse(sr);
}
}
}
}
//Close the PDF
ResultPDF.Close();
}
}
//Grab the raw bytes of the PDF
bytes = ms.ToArray();
}
//At this point, the bytes variable holds a valid PDF file.
//You can write it disk:
System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes("your file path here", bytes);
//You can also send it to a browser:
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=WelcomeLetter.pdf");
Response.BinaryWrite(bytes);
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
//Never do the next line, it doesn't do what you think it does and actually produces corrupt PDFs
//Response.Write(ResultPDF); //BAD!!!!!!
Response.End();

string tempDirectory = Session.SessionID.ToString();
string location = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath(
WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["PathSet"].ToString()), tempDirectory);
if (!Directory.Exists(location))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(location);
}
string fileName="abc.pdf";
filePath = Path.Combine(location, fileName);

Saving generated pdf in the database using c#

I'm working on asp.net application where it takes input from user in multiple form and save in pdf. Now I'm stuck where I don't know how to save the generated pdf in the SQL Server database.
With this, I'm attaching code for saving in pdf.
protected void btnExportPDF_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Samba.pdf");
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
StringWriter st = new StringWriter();
HtmlTextWriter ht = new HtmlTextWriter(st);
gvExperience.AllowPaging = false;
gvExperience.DataBind();
gvExperience.RenderControl(ht);
StringReader sr1 = new StringReader(st.ToString());
Document pdfDoc = new Document(PageSize.A4, 10f,10f,10f,0f);
HTMLWorker htmlparser = new HTMLWorker(pdfDoc);
PdfWriter.GetInstance(pdfDoc, Response.OutputStream);
pdfDoc.Open();
htmlparser.Parse(sr1);
pdfDoc.Close();
Response.Write(pdfDoc);
Response.End();
}

Create a table with at least the name of the file (varchar(100), the content (varbinary(max)), and the length of the content (int).
Convert pdf to byte array (byte[]). I would swap our your Reponse.OutputStream for a memory stream. Save to Sql Server with your prefered data access method.
Sql server's 'varbinary' will translate to C#'s 'byte[]'. When you're writing it back to the client's browser you'll want to set the 'content-type' header and write to the stream with 'Response.BinaryWrite(byte[])'.

Convert to base64 string then insert into DB.
byte[] pdfBytes = File.ReadAllBytes(pdfPath);
string pdfBase64 = Convert.ToBase64String(pdfBytes);
Happy coding. :)

Save the generated pdf directly to the server directory folder without user prompt

A friend of mine gave me this task so I can learn advance programming a little bit easier. I am currently doing convertion of an html page to pdf using itext sharp and email the pdf as an attachement. My idea is to save the pdf first to the server machine in the folder name ToBeEmailedPDF folder before using it as an email attachment. The thing that bothers me is that this dialog as what you can see in the picture shows up using the code that I have below.
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
StringWriter tw = new StringWriter(sb);
HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(tw);
pnlPDF.RenderControl(hw); // pnlPDF contains the html contents to be converted to pdf
string htmlDisplayText = sb.ToString();
Document document = new Document();
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, ms);
StringReader se = new StringReader(htmlDisplayText);
HTMLWorker obj = new HTMLWorker(document);
document.Open();
obj.Parse(se);
// step 5: we close the document
document.Close();
Response.Clear();
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=report.pdf");
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
Response.Buffer = true;
Response.OutputStream.Write(ms.GetBuffer(), 0, ms.GetBuffer().Length);
Response.OutputStream.Flush();
Response.End();
I know many of you out there knows a better way or know how to solve my problem. Please help me. Thank you!

There is big difference between client-side and server-side.
Response class can output contents to client machine, if you need to save file on server use something like File.WriteAllBytes (msdn) method

What you are trying to achieve is impossible for security reasons. Only the user can decide where he wants the attachment to be saved. Imagine if this was possible: you would then be able to save any kind of viruses into any kind of folders on the user's computer. As an alternative to showing the Save dialog you could open the PDF inline:
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=report.pdf");

You can save it using the following code:
PdfWriter.GetInstance(pdfDoc, new FileStream(context.Server.MapPath("~") + "/PDF/" + reportName + ".pdf", FileMode.Create));