The reason for having separate OnPdfExporting event is that by the time the OnGridExporting event is raised, the Pdf output is already generated and ready for adding to the response. Some cases where the OnPdfExporting event is helpful when you want to modify the output - as an alternative to the OnGridExporting event.

Although you can't modify the contents on OnGridExporting, you can use this event to achieve some other tasks. For example:

• to save the file on the server/send it via mail if needed.

• to show the PDF file in RadWindow - there is a blog post that contains a runnable project that demonstrate this scenario

RadGrid does not export any external styles. That means that your skins will not appear in the generated file. Still, the inline styles are preserved and should be used instead. Different approaches could be used depending where RadGrid will rebind before export (when IgnorePaging is set to true or when you rebind manually).

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

bool isExport = false;
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    isExport = true;
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf();
}
protected void RadGrid1_ItemCreated(object sender, GridItemEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Item is GridDataItem && isExport)
        e.Item.Style["background-color"] = "#888888";
}

CopyVB.NET

Private isExport As Boolean = FalseProtected
Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    isExport = True
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf()
End Sub
Protected Sub RadGrid1_ItemCreated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridItemEventArgs)
    If TypeOf e.Item Is GridDataItem AndAlso isExport Then
        e.Item.Style("background-color") = "#888888"
    End If
End Sub

In the cases, where Rebind won't be invoked you can apply the styles directly:

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    foreach (GridDataItem item in RadGrid1.Items)
        item.Style["background-color"] = "#888888";
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf();
}

CopyVB.NET

Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    For Each item As GridDataItem In RadGrid1.Items
        item.Style("background-color") = "#888888"
    Next
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf()
End Sub

Note
To center the text in the GridHeaderItem, you should set the appropriate style to each cell (TH element) instead of the whole row.

You can use the HideStructureColumns property to hide GridRowIndicatorColumn, GridExpandColumn and GridGroupSplitterColumn. For the other columns types, you can use the following approach:

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.GetColumn("C2").Visible = false;
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf();
}

CopyVB.NET

Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click()
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.GetColumn("C2").Visible = False
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf()
End Sub

There are two common ways to hide an item.

• Directly - in the button handler when exporting from a button or on ItemCommand when exporting from the built-in buttons

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

protected void RadGrid1_ItemCommand(object source, GridCommandEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.CommandName == RadGrid.ExportToPdfCommandName)
        RadGrid1.MasterTableView.Items[2].Visible = false;
}

CopyVB.NET

Protected Sub RadGrid1_ItemCommand(ByVal source As Object, ByVal e As GridCommandEventArgs) Handles RadGrid1.ItemCommand
    If e.CommandName = RadGrid.ExportToPdfCommandName Then
        RadGrid1.MasterTableView.Items(2).Visible = False
    End If
End Sub

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.Items[2].Visible = false;
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf();
}

CopyVB.NET

Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.Items(2).Visible = False
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf()
End Sub

• On ItemCreated / ItemDataBound - this approach should be used when IgnorePaging="true" or when you call RadGrid.Rebind before exporting.

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

bool isPdfExport = false;
protected void RadGrid1_ItemCommand(object source, GridCommandEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.CommandName == RadGrid.ExportToPdfCommandName)
        isPdfExport = true;
}
protected void RadGrid1_ItemCreated(object sender, GridItemEventArgs e)
{
    if (isPdfExport && e.Item.ItemIndex == 2)
        e.Item.Visible = false;
}

CopyVB.NET

Private isPdfExport As Boolean = FalseProtected
Sub RadGrid1_ItemCommand(ByVal source As Object, ByVal e As GridCommandEventArgs)
    If e.CommandName = RadGrid.ExportToPdfCommandName Then
        isPdfExport = True
    End If
End Sub
Protected Sub RadGrid1_ItemCreated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridItemEventArgs)
    If isPdfExport AndAlso e.Item.ItemIndex = 2 Then
        e.Item.Visible = False
    End If
End Sub

By setting BorderType, BorderStyle and BorderColor properties you could customize the look of the grid's border into the exported file. They could be set to ExportSettings-Pdf.

BorderType determines the border type that will be applied to the exported PDF file. The supported values are: Separate, NoBorder, OuterBorders, AllBorders. The selected border type will be applied for both flat and hierarchical RadGrids. Note that the Separate value is left to avoid breaking changes and also because of the fact that this functionality has a minor performance impact. When the BorderType is set to Separate, the BorderColor, and the BorderStyle properties will have no effect.

BorderStyle determines the style of the borders that will be applied to the exported PDF file. The supported values: Medium, Thick, Thin. Its default value is Medium.

And the last property BorderColor determines the color of the borders that will be applied to the exported PDF file. It supports all color from Drawing.Color collection. Black is the default color.

Additionally when Separate border type is used the following statements are applicable.

You can disable the RadGrid borders by settings the BorderStyle or GridLines properties - either in code-behind or in the markup.

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

RadGrid1.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None;

CopyVB.NET

RadGrid1.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None

If you apply the same approach to the MasterTableView (or other GridTableView) you will remove the outer table border only - when combined with the above mentioned approach you can hide all borders in RadGrid.

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

RadGrid1.MasterTableView.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None;

CopyVB.NET

RadGrid1.MasterTableView.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None

RadGrid's PDF exporting engine supports all languages that use left-to-right orientation when the appropriate Unicode font is set. Live demo that exports Japanese characters is available online. The most common international font is Arial Unicode MS because it covers all Unicode characters. Of course, you can use other language-specific fonts as Batang for Korean, SimSun for Chinese, MS Mincho for Japanese and etc.

The default font of the generated pages is specified by the DefaultFontFamily property:

CopyASPX

<ExportSettings>
    <Pdf DefaultFontFamily="Arial Unicode MS" />
</ExportSettings>

Also, you can dynamically set fonts to the row elements in the same manner used to set background-colors:

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

item["OriginalName"].Style["font-family"] = "Arial Unicode MS";

CopyVB.NET

item("OriginalName").Style("font-family") = "Arial Unicode MS"

There are a few rules that should be followed when exporting HTML tables to PDF:

• The table should define <colgroup> and <col> elements

• The number of col elements should be equal to the number of the columns in the table body

• Width in pixels (or another absolute units) should be set to the table

CopyXML

<table width="300px">
  <colgroup>
    <col />
    <col />
  </colgroup>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Cell1
    </td>
    <td>
      Cell2
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Our PDF engine can export all images nevertheless whether they use an absolute or relative path. The image can be stored on the local server or remotely. When using third-party image-processing tools like ImageResizer.dll or similar modules that use HttpHandlers and accept parameters via query strings, you should provide an absolute path to the resized image, otherwise RadGrid won't be able to find the image and will throw an error. Transparency is not supported.

You can use the following approach if you need to set a background image to your GridTableViews:

<MasterTableView style="background-image: url(yourimage)" />

Note
In order to export images that are spanned over multiple columns you should invoke PrepareItemStyle on the corresponding grid item. Our PDF export demo uses the depicted approach.

There are two ways to resize the columns - declarative (in the markup) and programmatic (in code-behind). The first one involves the HeaderStyle property:

CopyASPX

<telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="ID">
  <HeaderStyle width="20px" />
</telerik:GridBoundColumn>

It is also possible to set the widths dynamically - Page_PreRender event is suitable for this functionality:

• C#
• VB.NET

CopyC#

protected void Page_PreRender(object o, EventArgs e)
{
    GridColumn column = RadGrid1.MasterTableView.GetColumn("MyColumnName");
    column.HeaderStyle.Width = Unit.Pixel(300);
}

CopyVB.NET

Protected Sub Page_PreRender(ByVal o As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    Dim column As GridColumn = RadGrid1.MasterTableView.GetColumn("MyColumnName")
    column.HeaderStyle.Width = Unit.Pixel(300)
End Sub

Note
If you want the changes to be applied to the exported file only, you can use a boolean flag to distinguish whether the event is fired as a result of a button click (or manual invoking of the export method).

Text alignment could be set either to the row element or to the cell. The only exception is when the cell is part of the GridHeaderItem - the elements are not TD, but TH. In this case you should set the style (text-align) to each cell in the given row.

In RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX Q3 2009 Beta we introduced the possibility to use page-breaks. They can be added in many ways - declaratively, in code-behind or directly in the raw html.

The page-breaking tag is <?hard-pagebreak?>

CopyASPX

<columns>    
  <telerik:GridTemplateColumn>        
    <ItemTemplate>
       FIRST COLUMN        
    </ItemTemplate>    
  </telerik:GridTemplateColumn>    
  <telerik:GridTemplateColumn>        
    <ItemTemplate>
       LAST_COLUMN<?hard-pagebreak?>        
    </ItemTemplate>    
  </telerik:GridTemplateColumn>
</columns>

Below, you can find the answers of some commonly asked questions

Q: How to insert newline character - BR doesn't work?

A: You can use P instead of BR

Q: How to fit XX columns on my page?

A: Depending on your scenario, you can choose one or more suggestions from the following list:

• switch the orientation to landscape

• reduce the font size

• use narrower fonts

• decrease the page margins

• increase the page size

Q: I want to export multiple RadGrids / I want to export nested RadGrids

A: Have a look at the following code-library project: Export multiple RadGrids

Q: The PDF file appears blank on my Mac

A: Please use Adobe Reader instead of the built-in Preview

Q: My PDF file is blank or I see the page title only

A: Disable the Scrolling/StaticHeaders functionality - don't forget to Rebind() the RadGrid control afterwards, otherwise the changes will not take effect.

Q: I have a RadChart control nested in my RadGrid. How to export it?

A: Although this is not supported out-of-the-box (since the RadChart image is served by a HttpHandler) you could use the following trick: Insert a regular (invisible) ASP.NET Image next to your RadChart control and then call the Save method on ItemDataBound event. Set this image to the ImageUrl property of the aforementioned image control. Of course, you will have to show (Visible="true") the image before export.

Although we are striving to constantly improve our products, there are some limitations in the current implementation of our PDF engine

• Image transparency

• Right-to-left fonts

• Nested DIV elements with absolute position

• Nested DIV elements with specified width or height

• Automatic text clipping

• Client-side binding

• Medium trust

• At least one of minimum, optimum, or maximum IPD must be specified on table

Reason: Nested tables should have width in pixels

• The '*' character, hexadecimal value 0x2A, cannot be included in a name

The default pager's RadComboBox uses special CSS approach that is unsupported by the PDF parser

• Telerik.Web.Apoc.ApocException: fo:block must be child of fo:basic-link, fo:block, fo:block-container, fo:float, fo:flow, fo:footnote-body, fo:inline, fo:inline-container, fo:list-item-body, fo:list-item-label, fo:marker, fo:multi-case, fo:static-content, fo:table-caption, fo:table-cell or fo:wrapper not fo:table-header

This exception is probably result of a hardpagebreak, inserted in a wrong place - for example directly after the starting tag of a table

• System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array. at Telerik.Web.Apoc.Render.Pdf.Fonts.Type2CIDSubsetFont.GetWidth(Int32 charIndex)

You are either using RTL fonts or mixing Korean characters with another language in the same element (rare scenario)

• Unable to cast object of type 'Telerik.Web.Apoc.Layout.BlockArea' to type 'Telerik.Web.Apoc.Layout.AreaContainer'

Most probably you have DIV element with specified dimensions or absolute positioning. Remove the relevant width/height/position attributes to avoid this exception.

• System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission

RadGrid's PDF export engine doesn't work in medium trust.

• Telerik.Web.Apoc.ApocException: internal-destination or external-destination must be specified in basic-link

PDF engine is trying to resolve empty anchorURL. Please note, that the anchor links are supported only when valid URL is supplied. Example:

• System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array. at Telerik.Web.Apoc.Fo.Flow.TableRow.CellArray.GetNextFreeCell(Int32 colNum)

The reason for this exception is that the number of col elements is the colgroup is not equal to the maximum number of cells per row. Put simply, if you have a table with two columns, you should put two col elements.

CopyASPX

<a href="#">text</a>
<%--ERROR--%>

<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/links.html#h-12.2">W3.ORG</a>
<%--VALID--%>