SelectPdf for .NET - Automatic Bookmarks with Html to Pdf Converter

This sample shows how the html to pdf converter can automatically generate pdf bookmarks based on some elements selection using SelectPdf Pdf Library for .NET.

The elements that will be bookmarked are defined using CSS selectors. For example, the selector for all the H1 elements is "H1", the selector for all the elements with the CSS class name 'myclass' is "*.myclass" and the selector for the elements with the id 'myid' is "*#myid". Read more about CSS selectors here.

Test document

Url:

Bookmark the following elements:

Sample Code VB.NET

Imports SelectPdf

Namespace Controllers
    Public Class AutomaticBookmarksController
        Inherits Controller

        ' GET: AutomaticBookmarks
        Public Function Index() As ActionResult
            Dim url As String = System.Web.VirtualPathUtility _
                .ToAbsolute("~/files/document.html")
            ViewData.Add("ViewTxtUrl", (New Uri(Request.Url, url)).AbsoluteUri)
            Return View()
        End Function

        <HttpPost>
        Public Function SubmitAction(collection As FormCollection) As ActionResult
            ' instantiate a html to pdf converter object
            Dim converter As New HtmlToPdf()

            ' set the css selectors for the automatic bookmarks
            converter.Options.PdfBookmarkOptions.CssSelectors =
                collection("TxtElements").Split(New Char() {","c})

            ' display the bookmarks when the document is opened in a viewer
            converter.Options.ViewerPreferences.PageMode = PdfViewerPageMode.UseOutlines

            ' create a new pdf document converting an url
            Dim doc As PdfDocument = converter.ConvertUrl(collection("TxtUrl"))

            ' save pdf document
            Dim pdf As Byte() = doc.Save()

            ' close pdf document
            doc.Close()

            ' return resulted pdf document
            Dim fileResult As FileResult = New FileContentResult(pdf, "application/pdf")
            fileResult.FileDownloadName = "Document.pdf"
            Return fileResult
        End Function
    End Class
End Namespace