Example of RadGrid sent as Email Attachment in PDF or Excel

[Mike]

Here is some code that I whpped together which shows how to create a pdf or xls document from a RadGrid and  attach it to an email.

I only had time to draft the basics, but you should get the idea and I thought that I would share since members like Princy helped me get here.

<telerik:RadGrid ID="RadGrid1"
               AllowSorting="false"
               AutoGenerateColumns="false"
               AlternatingItemStyle-HorizontalAlign="center"
               AlternatingItemStyle-BackColor="#ffffff"
               GroupingEnabled="true"
               OnExcelExportCellFormatting="RadGrid1_ExcelExportCellFormatting"
               OnGridExporting="RadGrid1_GridExporting"
               OnPdfExporting="RadGrid1_PdfExporting"
               ExportSettings-Excel-Format="Html"
               ExportSettings-ExportOnlyData="true"
               Width="100%"
               runat="server">
               <MasterTableView  Width="99%">
               <Columns>  ...

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Text;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using Mec.CommonLibrary.Cryptography;
using MEC.EMA.BLL;
using Microsoft.Security.Application;
using Telerik.Web.UI;


public class EmailRadGridAttachment
{

    List<Person> _userList = new List<Person>();
    UserBLL _userBLL = new UserBLL();

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        BindGrid();
    }

    protected void BindGrid()
    {
        _userList = _userListBLL.GetUserById(_userId);
        RadGrid1.DataSource = _userList;
    }

    // aspx page with a button that fires this event for Excel
    protected void ButtonExcel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ConfigureExport();
        RadGrid Grid1 = (RadGrid)Page.Master.FindControl("Main").FindControl("RadGrid1");
        Grid1.MasterTableView.ExportToExcel();
    }

    // aspx page with a button that fires this even for PDF
    protected void ButtonPdf_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
    {
        ConfigureExport();
        RadGrid Grid1 = (RadGrid)Page.Master.FindControl("Main").FindControl("RadGrid1");
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.AllowPrinting = true;
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.AllowModify = true;
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.AllowCopy = true;
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.AllowAdd = true;
        // I found that if I don't use postscript fonts the data does not make it to the attachment
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.DefaultFontFamily = "Helvetica";
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.PageLeftMargin = new Unit(2, UnitType.Mm);
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.PageRightMargin = new Unit(2, UnitType.Mm);
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.PageHeaderMargin = new Unit(0, UnitType.Mm);
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.PaperSize = GridPaperSize.Legal;
        // to get lanscape orientation
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.PageHeight = Unit.Parse("210mm");
        // Width based on TOU and NON-TOU Columns and the smaller parse the more room for data
        Grid1.ExportSettings.Pdf.PageWidth = Unit.Parse("420mm");

        foreach (GridColumn col in RadGrid1.MasterTableView.RenderColumns)
        {
            // We have the ability to control the width of columns in the export here
            if (col.UniqueName != "MiddleInitial")
            {
                col.HeaderStyle.Width = Unit.Pixel(50);
            }
        }
        Grid1.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf();
    }

    protected void RadGrid1_PdfExporting(object sender, GridPdfExportingArgs e)
    {
        // I have added some more information that will be included in the PDF above the RadGrid here
        StringBuilder customHTML = new StringBuilder();
        customHTML.Append("<p style='color: red; font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;'>Title Page</p>");
        customHTML.Append("<table style='font-family:Helvetica;font-size:9pt;width:500px;'>");
        // Very Important to make sure you have a colgroup and the same number of "<col>" as "<td>"
        customHTML.Append("<colgroup><col style='width: 200px; white-space:nowrap;' /><col style='text-align:left;' /></colgroup>");
        // ColGroup = Number of <td> in a row is needed for Telerik export to PDF
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>Customer: " + CustomerName.Text + "</td><td>Date: " + LabelDate.Text + " </td></tr>");
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>Address: " + LabelAddress.Text + "</td><td>Email: " + LabelEmail.Text + " </td></tr>");
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>City: " + LabelCity.Text + "</td><td>Phone: " + LabelPhone.Text + " </td></tr>");
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>State: " + LabelState.Text + "</td><td>Zip: " + LabelZipCode.Text + " </td></tr>");
        customHTML.Append("</table>");
        e.RawHTML = customHTML + e.RawHTML;
    }




    public void ConfigureExport()
    {
        RadGrid Grid1 = (RadGrid)Page.Master.FindControl("Main").FindControl("RadGrid1");
        Grid1.ExportSettings.ExportOnlyData = true;
        Grid1.ExportSettings.IgnorePaging = true;
        // We don't want the Open, Save or Cancel prompt to open for a new window when calling this page
        Grid1.ExportSettings.OpenInNewWindow = false;
    }

    protected void RadGrid1_GridExporting(object source, GridExportingArgs e)
    {
        StringBuilder customHTML = new StringBuilder();
        MemoryStream gridMemoryStream = new MemoryStream(new ASCIIEncoding().GetBytes(e.ExportOutput));
        if (e.ExportType == ExportType.Excel)
        {
            SendEMailWithAttachment(gridMemoryStream, "attachment.xls");
        }
        // Stuff the Grid in a memory stream and pass it to the email method
        if (e.ExportType == ExportType.Pdf)
        {
            SendEMailWithAttachment(gridMemoryStream, "attachment.pdf");
        }
        gridMemoryStream.Close();
        // Redirect to the same page so the alert does not pop-up
        Response.Redirect(Request.Url.AbsoluteUri);
    }

    public void SendEMailWithAttachment(Stream attachmentStream, string fileName)
    {
        //settings from the web.config
        SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient(Convert.ToString(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SERVER_EMAIL"]));
        string authType = "Basic";
        MailMessage email = new MailMessage();
        StringBuilder body = new StringBuilder();
        string emaURL = Convert.ToString(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["BASE_URL"]);
        email.From = new MailAddress("[e-mail]");
        email.To.Add("[e-mail]");
        email.Subject = "This is the subject";
        body.Append("<table style='font-family:Helvetica;font-size:9pt;width:600px;'>");
        body.Append("<tr><td>You can put in whatever you want here</td></tr>");
        body.Append("</table>");
        // Attachment goes here
        email.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(attachmentStream, fileName));
        email.Body = body.ToString();
        email.IsBodyHtml = true;
        NetworkCredential nc = new NetworkCredential(Convert.ToString(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["CredentialU"]), Convert.ToString(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["CredentialP"]));
        smtpClient.Credentials = nc.GetCredential(Convert.ToString(smtpClient), 25, authType);
        smtpClient.Send(email);
    }
}

[Neha]

Hi Mike,

 I am using this approach for my project. Everything is working fine but _pdfexporting event, the GridPdfExportingargs.RawHTML is adding duplicate columns.

 I have 3 columns for my grid and when I reach this event, the e.RawHtml shows 6 columns.

Following is the code:

 

Protected Sub grdPDFDetailReports_PdfExporting(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridPdfExportingArgs)
        ' I have added some more information that will be included in the PDF above the RadGrid here
        Dim customHTML As New StringBuilder()
        Dim facilityDTO As New FacilityDTO

        InnCode = Convert.ToString(Session("Inncode"))
        facilityDTO = SharedMethods.GetFacilityDetailsByInnCode(InnCode)
        brandID = facilityDTO.FacilityBrandFamilyID

        customHTML.Append("<table style='font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15pt;width:2500px;'>")
        ' Very Important to make sure you have a colgroup and the same number of "<col>" as "<td>"
        customHTML.Append("<colgroup><col style='width: 2000px; white-space:nowrap;' /><col style='text-align:center;' /></colgroup>")
        ' ColGroup = Number of <td> in a row is needed for Telerik export to PDF
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>InnCode: " + "CHICI" + "</td></tr>")
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>Brand: " + facilityDTO.BrandFamily + "</td></tr>")
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>Hotel Name: " + facilityDTO.Name + "</td></tr>")
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>Management Type: " + facilityDTO.ManagementType + "</td></tr>")
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>State: " + facilityDTO.State + "</td></tr>")
        customHTML.Append("<tr><td>City & Zip: " + facilityDTO.City + " & " + facilityDTO.Zip + "</td></tr>")
        customHTML.Append("</table>")
        e.RawHTML = customHTML.Append(e.RawHTML).ToString

End Sub

 

This is my grid aspx:

 <telerik:RadGrid ID="grdPDFDetailReports" runat="server"  Skin="Default" OnPdfExporting="grdPDFDetailReports_PdfExporting" OnGridExporting="grdPDFDetailReports_GridExporting"
>
        <MasterTableView>
            <Columns>
              <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="Description" HeaderText="Description" ReadOnly="True"
                    SortExpression="Description" HtmlEncode="true">
                </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
                <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="Type" HeaderText="Type" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="Type"
                    HtmlEncode="true">
                </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
                <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="Grade" HeaderText="Grade" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="Grade"
                    HtmlEncode="true">
                </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
                </Columns>
                </MasterTableView>
                </telerik:RadGrid>

 

This is what e.rawHTML shows:

 

<table rules="all" border="1" id="ctl00_MainContent_grdPDFDetailReports_ctl00" style="width:100%;table-layout:auto;empty-cells:show;">
<colgroup>
<col  />
<col  />
<col  />
<col  />
<col  />
<col  />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col">Description</th><th scope="col">Type</th><th scope="col">Grade</th><th scope="col">Description</th><th scope="col">Type</th><th scope="col">Grade</th>
</tr>
</thead><tbody>
<tr>

Please suggest how can I remove duplicate columns.​​

[Neha]

Hi Mike,

I have another query. I want to call exporttopdf,  grid_pdfexporting andgrid_gridexporting events in loop but the control comes out after exporttopdf is done and moves for the next item in loop. Is there a way where we can forcefully raise the events.

[Kostadin]

Hello Neha,

I assume the cause for the double columns is that you did not disable the auto generated columns. Please disable the AutoGenerateColumns property and check whether the issue remains.

<telerik:RadGrid ID="grdPDFDetailReports" runat="server"  Skin="Default" OnPdfExporting="grdPDFDetailReports_PdfExporting" OnGridExporting="grdPDFDetailReports_GridExporting" AutoGenerateColumns="false" >

Regards your second query I am afraid you cannot fire the events during a single request. That means first will fire OnPdfExporting and then OnGridExporting event will be fire. If you want to execute it again you have to fire ExportToPdf again after this request.

Regards,
Kostadin
Telerik

[Elakkiya]

Hi Mike,

        Export to Excel was working as the expected, but when I click for export to pdf....the  message says " xxxxxxxxx.pdf is Protected. Please Enter a document Open password".I have tried with different passwords and by enabling and disabling the User password in pdf setting. Can you please help me out in this 

[Marin Bratanov]

Hi Elakkiya,

There are no such known issues with the grid PDF export and so I advise that you:

1. make sure pdf protection/password is not set somewhere in the code-behind of the page as well
2. upgrade to the latest version (there was an issue with that in 2010, see here for more details)
3. make sure that the problem does not stem from an Antivirus, the email client or other similar software that may be tampering with the file after it is generated from the grid
4. if you still can't resolve it, open a support ticket where you can send us an MCVE of the problem so we can help

 

Regards,
Marin Bratanov
Progress Telerik