using IronPdf; // Instantiate Renderer var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer(); // Create a PDF from a HTML string using C# var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World</h1>"); // Export to a file or Stream pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf"); // Advanced Example with HTML Assets // Load external html assets: Images, CSS and JavaScript. // An optional BasePath 'C:\site\assets\' is set as the file location to load assets from var myAdvancedPdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<img src='icons/iron.png'>", @"C:\site\assets\"); myAdvancedPdf.SaveAs("html-with-assets.pdf");

using IronPdf; using System; // Step 1. Creating a PDF with editable forms from HTML using form and input tags // Radio Button and Checkbox can also be implemented with input type 'radio' and 'checkbox' const string formHtml = @" <html> <body> <h2>Editable PDF Form</h2> <form> First name: <br> <input type='text' name='firstname' value=''> <br> Last name: <br> <input type='text' name='lastname' value=''> <br> <br> <p>Please specify your gender:</p> <input type='radio' id='female' name='gender' value= 'Female'> <label for='female'>Female</label> <br> <br> <input type='radio' id='male' name='gender' value='Male'> <label for='male'>Male</label> <br> <br> <input type='radio' id='non-binary/other' name='gender' value='Non-Binary / Other'> <label for='non-binary/other'>Non-Binary / Other</label> <br> <p>Please select all medical conditions that apply:</p> <input type='checkbox' id='condition1' name='Hypertension' value='Hypertension'> <label for='condition1'> Hypertension</label><br> <input type='checkbox' id='condition2' name='Heart Disease' value='Heart Disease'> <label for='condition2'> Heart Disease</label><br> <input type='checkbox' id='condition3' name='Stoke' value='Stoke'> <label for='condition3'> Stoke</label><br> <input type='checkbox' id='condition4' name='Diabetes' value='Diabetes'> <label for='condition4'> Diabetes</label><br> <input type='checkbox' id='condition5' name='Kidney Disease' value='Kidney Disease'> <label for='condition5'> Kidney Disease</label><br> </form> </body> </html>"; // Instantiate Renderer var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer(); renderer.RenderingOptions.CreatePdfFormsFromHtml = true; renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(formHtml).SaveAs("BasicForm.pdf"); // Step 2. Reading and Writing PDF form values. var FormDocument = PdfDocument.FromFile("BasicForm.pdf"); // Set and Read the value of the "firstname" field var FirstNameField = FormDocument.Form.GetFieldByName("firstname"); FirstNameField.Value = "Minnie"; Console.WriteLine("FirstNameField value: {0}", FirstNameField.Value); // Set and Read the value of the "lastname" field IronPdf.Forms.FormField LastNameField = FormDocument.Form.GetFieldByName("lastname"); LastNameField.Value = "Mouse"; Console.WriteLine("LastNameField value: {0}", LastNameField.Value); FormDocument.SaveAs("FilledForm.pdf");

Published April 20, 2023

NuGet Packages (PDF, OCR, Barcode, Excel): Updated List

The .NET package manager library is called NuGet. One of the languages that developers use the most frequently is C#, which suggests that it is a very productive language. There are other free NuGet packages available that boost C# productivity even more. NuGet packages feature in various IDEs for example, Visual Studio.

We can use the same package of NuGet on different environments like Web, Windows and Mobile etc. We can install the NuGet package with newer versions under Package Manager Console. Visual Studio has a built-in high performance NuGet extension installed. With NuGet Package Manager, you can produce and consume packages in a convenient way within repository. It also helps us in publishing packages.

Execute the following command in Visual Studio source control project:

dotnet add package --source {source\_name} --the version {package\_version} {package_name}

Parameter Description

source_name: The desired .NET package source name.

package_name: The NuGet package name of .NET/.NET Core library.

package_version: The package version number.

The top 10 NuGet packages for increasing developers' productivity when using C# in multiple projects are covered in this article:

RestSharp
Json.NET
Iron Software
Serilog
NUnit
Insight.Database
FluentValidation
FluentEmail
Hangfire
LazyCache

RestSharp

REpresentational State Transfer is known as REST. With an average of over 43,000 downloads each day, RestSharp has passed over 190 million downloads on NuGet. The most widely used HTTP client library for dot NET project file is called RestSharp. This existing package version makes it simple for C# developers to call remote resources over HTTP, taking care of the request body's serialization to JSON or XML and deserialization in the response. The new version of RestSharp NuGet package supports:

Queries that are both synchronous and asynchronous.
Serialization and deserialization are both used.
Many HTTP request types, including GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.
Various formats of authentication.

Json.NET

Json.NET is a minimalistic JSON handler library. With over 1 billion NuGet downloads/install, Json.NET is one of the free and open-source packages for the .NET code platform. Its salient characteristics are as follows:

Any dot NET object or compiled code can be serialized and deserialized into JSON, and vice versa.
Allows XML and JSON conversion to C# data model.
Allows object, JArray, and JValue object which supports LINQ queries.
Performance is 25% quicker than JavaScriptSerializer and 50% faster than DataContractJsonSerializer.

Iron Software

For .NET and Entity Framework (EF) Core programmers working with PDF, OCR, Excel, and barcodes, Iron Software](https://ironsoftware.com/) created a collection of public repository software libraries with useful code. With over 5.5 million downloads, it comes free for developers. It can be available in NuGet Package Manager with different package names like below. The key features of the Iron Software products are described below.

IronXL

Data from XLS, XLSX, CSV, and TSV formats can be edited, read, and loaded.
Data export and archival in the CSV, TSV, JSON, XLS, and XLSX formats.
You can sort columns, rows, and ranges.
A few examples of styling include cell visual styles, font, size, border, alignment, lock, freeze cells, hide/unhide rows, and number formats.
C# and VB.NET Excel Document API is simple.

IronBarcode

UPC A/E, EAN 8/13, Code 39/93/128, ITF, MSI, RSS 14/Expanded, Databar, CodaB
AR, QR, Styled QR, Data Matrix, MaxiCode, PDF417, Plessey, and Aztec are just a few of the barcode kinds and QR standards that IronBarcode can create, read and write. The barcode data, type, page, text, and barcode image are ideal for indexing or archiving systems.
Picture Pre-processing boosts Reading Accuracy and Speed - IronBarcode automatically pre-processes barcode images to boost reading efficiency and accuracy support. Rotation, noise, distortion, and skewing must be corrected in order to interpret scans or live video frames. Server programs that perform batch processing can make use of several cores and threads. It can automatically locate one or more barcodes in single and multi-page documents. You can look for specific barcode types or document locations without using difficult APIs.
Create barcodes and QR codes for a variety of document types - Many file and stream types, including PDF, JPG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG, and HTML, are available for saving and printing. Changes can be made to the text, rotation, size, color, and quality. IronBarcode can also create barcodes and QR codes with C# and VB.NET applications.

IronOCR

With the aid of the most recent Tesseract 5 engine, IronOCR can extract text, barcodes, and QR codes from any image or PDF file. With the help of this library, desktop, console, and online apps may easily implement OCR.
127 foreign languages are supported by IronOCR. It supports individualized languages and word lists.
IronOCR can read more than 20 different barcode and QR code formats.
Multipage GIF and TIFF image formats are supported by IronOCR.
IronOCR corrects scans with poor image quality.
Multi-threading is supported by IronOCR. It runs one or more operations simultaneously.
It can output structured data to pages, paragraphs, lines, words, and characters, among other things.
OCR for C# to read PDFs and scan pictures.

IronPDF

A variety of sources, including HTML, HTML5, ASPX, and Razor/MVC View, can be used to create PDF files. We have the ability to convert picture files as well as HTML files to PDF.
Print PDF documents, combine or divide PDF files, extract text and images from PDF files, do text searches in PDF files, rasterize PDF pages to images, convert PDF to HTML, or create PDF documents with interactive forms.
Using the URL as a base, create a document. Additionally, it makes it possible to log in behind HTML login forms using unique network login credentials, User-Agents, Proxies, Cookies, HTTP headers, and form variables.
A program called IronPDF reads and fills out pre-existing PDF documents.
.NET 7, 6, 5, Core, Standard, and Framework HTML to PDF converter.

To know more about the Iron Software products, you can refer here.

Serilog

Actions, exceptions, information, and warnings are all recorded in logs. Logging is a crucial component of application development that makes it easier for developers to find and fix problems.

A new logging or change tracking system used in .NET is called Serilog. Customized attributes and data are logged in JSON format.

Serilog offers structured logs whereas other logging systems only offer unstructured log data. Additionally, this makes it simple for developers to record present event data across console, files, and various storage systems.

Serilog offers diagnostic logging to files, the console, and other places, like many other libraries for .NET.

NUnit

To guarantee that the code is proper, testing is crucial in the creation of software. C# is supported by the open-source NUnit, unit testing framework, which is available for the .NET Framework. By disassembling huge apps into smaller components, NUnit makes it simple to test them. It assists us in identifying problems even while they are being developed. NUnit is open source, and NUnit 3 is distributed under the MIT licence.

Insight.Database

Insight.Database for .NET is a micro-ORM that converts C# object to database records and vice-versa. In a C# application, it is a collection of extension methods that simplify handling databases and schema migrations. There is a special feature called Auto Interface Implementation, which enables us to do a sophisticated database action with just one or two lines of code in the interface.

The main characteristics of Insight.Database is as follows:

Automated database connection opening and closing.
Simple stored procedure execution.
Assistance with many result sets.

FluentValidation

A .NET package called FluentValidation is used to create strongly typed validation rules. The validation criteria are created using a lambda expression and Fluent interface. The validation rules contribute to the integration and upkeep of clean domain code. It also provides a location where you may locate the verification logic. The following platforms are supported by FluentValidation 11: .NET Standard 2.0,.NET Core 3.1,.NET 5,.NET 6, and .NET 7.

Many built-in validations are available with FluentValidation, including the null check, string empty validation, max length, and min length. Additionally, it allows a custom validator, individualized validation messages depending on the property name, localized messages, asynchronous validations, and other features which help to validate modern object database mapper, while inserting into database like SQL server.

FluentEmail

With the help of the open-source .NET library FluentEmail, you can integrate email-sending capabilities into your dot NET application in just ten minutes. Create the email templates with Razor, then deliver the emails via SendGrid, MailGun, SMTP, and other methods. The components that your application needs to send email are put together by FluentEmail.

The email object's most popular features include To, From, CC/BCC, Subject, Body, Attach, Using Template, and SendAsync.

Hangfire

A simple method for carrying out background processing in .NET and .NET Core apps is provided by Hangfire. An open-source framework called Hangfire enables you to build, handle, and manage background jobs, or tasks you don't wish to include in the pipeline for handling requests such as:

mass notifications/newsletter
building different graphs
batch import from XML, CSV, JSON and so on.

LazyCache

Caching is a fantastic method for raising an application's performance. With LazyCache's featured caching format, you can request an item from cache while also having the option to add it if it's missing. A straightforward in-memory caching service is provided by LazyCache.

LazyCache excels in caching web service calls, intricate object graph construction processes, and database calls that may need to be temporarily saved for performance. Although it allows for a variety of caching options, the default setting saves the cached content for up to 20 minutes.

Conclusion

The top 10 NuGet packages for increasing C# programming productivity have been shown. These packages lighten the strain and speed up development. The tools for the NuGet client allow you to create and consume packages.

Iron Software offers cutting-edge solutions for businesses and startups. Iron Software provides five libraries that can be used in the WinForms, WPF, .NET MAUI, ASP.NET (Web Forms, MVC, .NET Core, .NET Standard), UWP, Win UI, Xamarin, and Blazor frameworks with various .NET languages like C#,VB and F# etc. This makes the work of developers easier.