PDF creation

Need to create dynamic catalogs

[lZakl]

I have a fairly simple request from a client that I am going to have a little trouble with the more I look into it.

The problem: He's hosted on a server where I don't have access to install something like AspPDF.

Is there a way using pure ASP or ASP.NET to create PDF's on the fly? I need to dynamically generate these catalogs based on data selected by the end user from a SQL server.

Any hints -- ideas -- critisism? ;0)

-- Zak

[garann]

I think you'd almost certainly need a third party DLL to write PDFs. Can you not just upload something to the client's /bin directory?

[coopster]

PDFs can be written out just like HTML documents, the format is open. I do not know any open source classes for MS platforms off-hand. Here are a couple of links that offer more details on how you may use the Portable Doucment Format --

PDF Reference [partners.adobe.com]
Acrobat SDK documentation [partners.adobe.com]

[oxbaker]

heres a link with several asp.net On the Fly PDF creators

[aspnetworld.com...]

who knows if you'll be able to install them but if all you need is the .dll you can reference it from your .net project and include it in the BIn folder.

hth,
mcm