Displaying a PDF in a WPF Application Not Working - WebBrowser or Adobe Control

Question

I need to display a PDF in a WPF application. From all the reading I've been doing online, it seems the [only?] ways of displaying a PDF within a WPF application is via Adobe's controls or a WebBrowser control. I've tried to use Adobe's controls, however, I have been unable to add the Reader control because for some reason I can't find the it as something I can add into my Toolbox (even once adding the reference needed). I'm running Windows 7 (64-bit), VS2010, .NET 4.0, and have Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional and Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended installed, if that has anything to do with it. So anyway, I decided to try it in a WebBrowser control hosted in a WindowsFormsHost. The XAML I have is this:

<WindowsFormsHost x:Name="FormsHost" Visibility="Visible" Grid.Column="1" Margin="7,0,0,0">
<WF:WebBrowser x:Name="WebBrowser" Dock="Fill" IsWebBrowserContextMenuEnabled="False" ScriptErrorsSuppressed="True" WebBrowserShortcutsEnabled="False" Margin="7,0,0,0" />
</WindowsFormsHost>

and then this in the C# code behind:

WebBrowser.Navigate(new System.Uri(FileName));

where FileName == the exact location of the .pdf file I need to display. However, when I run this all I see is a completely blank, white area where the WebBrowser is. I've also tried setting the .pdf file like this:

WebBrowser.Url = new System.Uri(FileName);

and I get the exact same thing. I know the PDF is being created in the correct location, as I can manually browse to it and open it fine.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this isn't working? Or possibly why I don't seem to have the Reader control as an option? At this point, either solution would be fine, they just neither one seem to be working!

Thanks!

Hi, if I remember correctly you have to create a winforms user control and in it use adobe's control to view pdfs. Then you use the <WinFormsHost> tag to insert the user control in your xaml. — LD7
The problem is that I've not been able to see the Adobe control, even when adding the correct Acrobat reference and then going to Toolbox -> Choose Items -> COM Components. The Reader control just isn't there, so I can't use it on a user control. I have no idea's as to why it doesn't show up as an option :( — JToland

agency30 agency30 · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-28T19:38:00

Here is what I did...

MAIN WINDOW XAML

 <Window x:Class="PDFView.MainWindow"
            xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
            xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
            Title="PDFView">
        <Grid>
            <WebBrowser x:Name="Browser" />
        </Grid>
    </Window>

MAIN WINDOW CODE BEHIND

using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Navigation;

namespace PDFView {
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        private const string hostUri = "http://localhost:8088/PsuedoWebHost/";

        private HttpListener _httpListener;

        public MainWindow() {
            InitializeComponent();

            this.Loaded += OnLoaded;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Loads the specified PDF in the WebBrowser control
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="sender"></param>
        /// <param name="routedEventArgs"></param>
        private void OnLoaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs routedEventArgs)
        {
            // Get the PDF from the 'database'
            byte[] pdfBytes = GetPdfData();

            // Create a PDF server that serves the PDF to a browser
            CreatePdfServer(pdfBytes);

            // Cleanup after the browser finishes navigating
            Browser.Navigated += BrowserOnNavigated;
            Browser.Navigate(hostUri);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Retrieve a byte array from a 'database record'
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private byte[] GetPdfData() {
            // TODO: Replace this code with data access code
            // TODO: Pick a file from the file system for this demo.
            string path = @"c:\Users\Me\Documents\MyPDFDocument.pdf"; 
            byte[] pdfBytes = File.ReadAllBytes(path);

            // Return the raw data
            return pdfBytes;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates an HTTP server that will return the PDF  
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="pdfBytes"></param>
        private void CreatePdfServer(byte[] pdfBytes) {
            _httpListener = new HttpListener();
            _httpListener.Prefixes.Add(hostUri);
            _httpListener.Start();
            _httpListener.BeginGetContext((ar) => {
                                                  HttpListenerContext context = _httpListener.EndGetContext(ar);

                                                  // Obtain a response object.
                                                  HttpListenerResponse response = context.Response;
                                                  response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.OK;
                                                  response.ContentType = "application/pdf";

                                                  // Construct a response.
                                                  if (pdfBytes != null) {
                                                      response.ContentLength64 = pdfBytes.Length;

                                                      // Get a response stream and write the PDF to it.
                                                      Stream oStream = response.OutputStream;
                                                      oStream.Write(pdfBytes, 0, pdfBytes.Length);
                                                      oStream.Flush();
                                                  }

                                                  response.Close();
                                              }, null);

        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Stops the http listener after the browser has finished loading the document
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="sender"></param>
        /// <param name="navigationEventArgs"></param>
        private void BrowserOnNavigated(object sender, NavigationEventArgs navigationEventArgs)
        {
            _httpListener.Stop();
            Browser.Navigated -= BrowserOnNavigated;
        }

    }
}

Displaying a PDF in a WPF Application Not Working - WebBrowser or Adobe Control

3 Answers