PdfTemplating.XslFO

This is a C#.Net solution that provides the capability to easily generate Pdf files using a templated approach that provides great separation between presentation (the template) and data (the Model); as opposed to extremely complex code based approaches most libraries provide. It's based on the Xsl-FO standard and now with ApacheFOP.Serverless provides a PDF-as-a-service architecture for generating PDF reports without unnecessary complexity and long term technical debt of legacy approaches (e.g. reporting engines).

In addition, this is a completely open-source and free solution to use (even commercially). Many of the complex (powerful maybe, but horribly difficult to develop and maintain) API libraries out there require licenses that make them no longer feasible solutions simply due to steep licensing costs for many projects.

ApacheFOP.Serverless is a fully functioning serverless implementation of Apache FOP (up-to-date Xsl-FO rendering engine).
It's a simple Java based Azure Function enabling a serverless microservice for Apache FOP via an Azure Function! Super light-weight, really slick, and easy to deploy . . . providing the flexibility of the latest (e.g. v2.5) Xsl-FO processing from Apache FOP!

• ApacheFOP.Serverless Repo is here!

More Background & Context:

• PDF Reporting from Web Apps, How hard can it be?
  • Part 1: Considerations for a robust PDF or Web reporting solution?
  • Part 2: Why markup based PDF Templating is the way to go...
• PDF Reporting with a Serverless Architecture!
  • More details, illustrations, and overview of the PDF-as-a-Service architectrue using ApacheFOP...

May 2022 Updates:

• All Example projects have been updated with support for PDF-as-a-service as the strongly recommended approach; vs in-memory processing with the legacy/deprecated Fonet library (which has known issues in non-windows environments).
• New ASP.NET Core MVC implementattion and Nuget libraries have been added.

I hope this helps anyone looking to dynamically generate PDF files in C# or .Net with a templating approach that is far more maintainable than other code based generation/manipulation approaches . . .

If you like this project and/or use it the please give me a Star (c'mon it's free, and it'll make my day)!

Buy me a Coffee ☕

I'm happy to share with the community, but if you find this useful (e.g for professional use), and are so inclinded, then I do love-me-some-coffee!

Project Overview:

This project illustrates the capabilities of using templating based approaches to render Xsl-FO for dynamically generating PDF documents. This project illustrates the use and support of two of the most common/well-known templating engines for .Net web development -- Razor Templating & XSLT Templating.

The Razor & Xslt template based approaches to rendering PDF files gives you the benefits of separating the presentation from the Data model, allows different team members to work at the same time because the Template can be developed offline with sample Model data that can be easily loaded, and the code can be made very manageable with the use of Xslt include files, variables, etc. to divide your code into modular "DRY" components for re-use across multiple reports, etc.

In addition, the Razor & Xslt engines are extensible and can support virtually unlimited capabilities with C# based extension functions. For Razor templates the world of .Net is immediately available (e.g. Linq). And, for XSLT custom extension functions can be defined in the assembly or inlinein the Xslt, and this project has many custom extensions already included to augment the Xslt v1.0 engine that .Net provides.

Finally, this project also provides basic a Windows Client (WinForms) application that provides a UI that can be used for developing when using the Xslt templating engine.

NOTE: Currently the Razor Implementation requires Microsoft.AspNet.MVC and does not yet support .Net Core. I plan to extend this as soon as I have a real need to render Pdf file from a .Net Core web application; or a console app for that matter (useful info. [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38247080/using-razor-outside-of-mvc-in-net-core](here on StackOverflow).)

Example Usages from the Demo MVC Project:

ASP.NET Framework:

Xslt (.Net Standard 2.0):

    //Use XSLT Template + FONet PDF Rendering Engine...
    public virtual byte[] RenderPdf(MovieSearchResponse templateModel)
    {
        //***********************************************************
        //Execute the XSLT Transform to generate the XSL-FO output
        //***********************************************************
        //Render the XSL-FO output from the Razor Template and the View Model
        var xslFODoc = this.RenderXslFOXml(templateModel);

        //Create the Pdf Options for the XSL-FO Rendering engine to use
        var pdfOptions = this.CreatePdfOptions();

        //****************************************************************************
        //Execute the Trasnformation of the XSL-FO source to Binary Pdf via Fonet
        //****************************************************************************
        var xslFOPdfRenderer = new FONetXslFOPdfRenderer(xslFODoc, pdfOptions);
        var pdfBytes = xslFOPdfRenderer.RenderPdfBytes();
        return pdfBytes;
    }

Razor View + FONet (.Net Framework and requires Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc):

    //Use Razor Template + FONet PDF Rendering Engine...
    public virtual byte[] RenderPdf(MovieSearchResponse templateModel)
    {
        //***********************************************************
        //Execute the Razor View to generate the XSL-FO output
        //***********************************************************
        var razorViewRenderer = new AspNetMvcRazorViewRenderer(this.ControllerContext);
        var renderResult = razorViewRenderer.RenderView(this.RazorViewVirtualPath, templateModel);

        //Load the XSL-FO output into a fully validated XDocument.
        //NOTE: This template must generate valid Xsl-FO output -- via the well-formed xml we load into the XDocument return value -- to be rendered as a Pdf Binary!
        var xslFODoc = XDocument.Parse(renderResult.RenderOutput);

        //Create the Pdf Options for the XSL-FO Rendering engine to use
        var pdfOptions = this.CreatePdfOptions();

        //****************************************************************************
        //Execute the Transformation of the XSL-FO source to Binary Pdf via Fonet
        //****************************************************************************
        var xslFOPdfRenderer = new FONetXslFOPdfRenderer(xslFODoc, pdfOptions);
        var pdfBytes = xslFOPdfRenderer.RenderPdfBytes();
        return pdfBytes;
    }

Razor View + ApacheFOP.Serverless (PDF-as-a-service via Azure Functions):

    //Use Razor Template + ApacheFOP.Serverless Rendering Engine; PDF-as-a-service via Azure Functions...
    public virtual async Task<byte[]> RenderPdfAsync(MovieSearchResponse templateModel)
    {
        //Ensure that compatibility Mode is Disabled for proper rendering of our Model
        templateModel.FonetCompatibilityEnabled = false;

        //***********************************************************
        //Execute the Razor View to generate the XSL-FO output
        //***********************************************************
        var razorViewRenderer = new AspNetMvcRazorViewRenderer(this.ControllerContext);
        var renderResult = razorViewRenderer.RenderView(this.RazorViewVirtualPath, templateModel);

        //Load the XSL-FO output into a fully validated XDocument.
        //NOTE: This template must generate valid Xsl-FO output to be rendered as a Pdf Binary! 
        //      This is optional, but parsing the output into XML will validate that it is well-formed!
        var xslFODoc = XDocument.Parse(renderResult.RenderOutput);

        //******************************************************************************************
        //Execute the Transformation of the XSL-FO source to Binary Pdf via Apache FOP Service...
        //******************************************************************************************
        var pdfBytes = await ApacheFOPServiceHelper.RenderXslFOToPdfAsync(xslFODoc);
        return pdfBytes;
    }

NEW ASP.NET CORE Support (as of May 2022)

NOTES:

1. The AspNetCore implementation nearly identical to the legacy .NET Framework example above, but must now be Async and uses the new namespace using PdfTemplating.XslFO.Razor.AspNetCoreMvc;
2. Fonet in-memory implementation is no longer provided due to known issues in non-windows environments, so we now strongly encourage the PDF-as-a-service (de-coupled) implementation approach, such as ApacheFOP.Serverless.

Xslt (.Net Standard 2.0):

    //Use XSLT Template + FONet PDF Rendering Engine...
    public virtual async Task<byte[]> RenderPdfAsync(MovieSearchResponse templateModel)
    {
        //NOTE: This is only needed becasue we share the same Report Template between legacy Fonet and new
        //  ApacheFOP.Serverless rendering; and there are some markup compatibility logic we want to disable.
        //Ensure that compatibility Mode is Disabled for proper rendering of our Model
        templateModel.FonetCompatibilityEnabled = false;

        //***********************************************************
        //Execute the XSLT Transform to generate the XSL-FO output
        //***********************************************************
        //Render the XSL-FO output from the Razor Template and the View Model
        var xslFODoc = this.RenderXslFOContent(templateModel);

        //******************************************************************************************
        //Execute the Transformation of the XSL-FO source to Binary Pdf via Apache FOP Service...
        //******************************************************************************************
        var pdfBytes = await _apacheFopHelperClient.RenderXslFOToPdfAsync(xslFODoc).ConfigureAwait(false);
        return pdfBytes;
    }

Razor View + ApacheFOP.Serverless (PDF-as-a-service via Azure Functions):

    //Use ASP.NET Core Razor Template + ApacheFOP.Serverless Rendering Engine; PDF-as-a-service via Azure Functions...
    public virtual async Task<byte[]> RenderPdfAsync(MovieSearchResponse templateModel)
    {
        //Ensure that compatibility Mode is Disabled for proper rendering of our Model
        templateModel.FonetCompatibilityEnabled = false;

        //***********************************************************
        //Execute the Razor View to generate the XSL-FO output
        //***********************************************************
        var razorViewRenderer = new MvcRazorViewRenderer(this.MvcController);
        var renderResult = await razorViewRenderer.RenderViewAsync(this.RazorViewPath, templateModel).ConfigureAwait(false);

        //***********************************************************
        //OPTIONALLY validate the Output by Loading the XSL-FO output into a fully validated XDocument...
        //***********************************************************
        //Load the XSL-FO output into a fully validated XDocument.
        //NOTE: T