How to Display PDF From Byte Array in Blazor

1. Introduction

IronPDF for C# PDF Solutions and Documentation is a C# PDF library that supports handling PDF rendering and converting byte arrays to PDF files. It also supports reviewing and printing PDFs as well as annotating PDFs with annotation tools. Adding headers and footers and merging multiple PDFs is also very convenient using IronPDF.

IronPDF can be used with Blazor PDF viewer to create a PDF viewer, and it can handle larger file sizes by creating an object URL that the browser can display.

Using IronPDF with Blazor, developers can create a PDF viewer that can display PDF files from byte arrays or from a file name, and it also supports uploading files and handling file downloads. IronPDF also provides a method to handle the paging of PDF documents, which works fine with Blazor.

In addition, IronPDF provides code examples to convert byte arrays to PDF documents, download PDF files, and display PDFs from a base64 string. Developers can also convert PDF files to other file formats, such as transforming images to PDF documents.

IronPDF can be used with a Blazor server app and can be integrated with Visual Studio to provide a seamless development experience. With IronPDF, developers can create a professional-grade UI component that can be used to build modern, feature-rich Web Applications.

This article explains how developers can use IronPDF to convert PDF byte arrays to PDF documents and display them in a Blazor PDF viewer.

2. Requirements

To follow along with the tutorial, the following tools and requirements are needed:

• Visual Studio 2019 or later: This is required to create and run the Blazor application. It can be downloaded from the Visual Studio official website
• .NET 5.0 or later: This is required to build and run the Blazor application. It can be downloaded from the official .NET download page
• IronPDF: This is the professional-grade UI library that will be used to convert PDF byte arrays to a PDF document and display it in the Blazor PDF viewer. It can be downloaded from the IronPDF official website
• IronPdf.Blazor NuGet package: This is the NuGet package that will be used to integrate IronPDF with the Blazor application. It can be installed from the NuGet Package Manager within Visual Studio.

Some features discussed in the tutorial may require a paid version of IronPDF. Additionally, the tutorial assumes a basic understanding of Blazor and C#.

3. Creating a Blazor Application

We must create a new Visual Studio project before we can start building our first Blazor app.

• Open Visual Studio.
• Click on "Create a New Project".

• Choose the Blazor Server App Template.

  Creating a New Project in Visual Studio

• Select the "Next" option.

• Name your application.

  Naming the New Project in Visual Studio

• Select the "Next" option.

• Select a .NET Framework.

  Choosing the .NET 6.0 Framework for the New Blazor Server App

• Click on the Create button.

• A new project will be created, as seen below.

  Initial Project View in Visual Studio

Several files were produced to give you a straightforward Blazor software that is ready to use.

• The entry point for the app that launches the server is program.cs, which is also where you set up the middleware and services for the app.
• The main part of the application is called "App.razor".
• Some sample web pages for the app can be found in the "Pages" directory.
• Different profile settings for the local development environment are defined in the "launchSettings.json" file located in the "Properties" directory. When a project is created, a port number is automatically assigned and saved to this file.

Start the template program.

Install-Package IronPdf

4. Creating and Displaying PDFs from Byte Array

To generate PDF byte arrays using IronPDF in a Blazor application, you first need to add the IronPDF dependency to your project.

Once you have added the IronPDF dependency to your Blazor application, you can create a PDF document using the following code:

// Placeholder for the URL used to generate the PDF
string _url = "";

// Method to render a URL as a PDF and convert the result to a base64 string
private async Task ViewFile()
{
    var renderer = new IronPdf.ChromePdfRenderer();

    // Render the specified URL as a PDF
    var pdf = renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://localhost:7018/fetchdata");

    // Convert the PDF stream to a base64 string
    _url = $"data:application/pdf;base64,{Convert.ToBase64String(pdf.Stream.ToArray())}";
}

// Placeholder for the URL used to generate the PDF
string _url = "";

// Method to render a URL as a PDF and convert the result to a base64 string
private async Task ViewFile()
{
    var renderer = new IronPdf.ChromePdfRenderer();

    // Render the specified URL as a PDF
    var pdf = renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://localhost:7018/fetchdata");

    // Convert the PDF stream to a base64 string
    _url = $"data:application/pdf;base64,{Convert.ToBase64String(pdf.Stream.ToArray())}";
}

The aforementioned code snippet makes use of IronPDF's RenderUrlAsPdf method, which downloads the HTML text from a specified URL and converts it into a PDF format. The resulting PDF material is then rendered as a string of unprocessed base64 data by converting the PDF stream to a base64 format and storing it in a local variable.

Applications can save created PDF files on the server's file system for later access by using IronPDF's SaveAs function, which is accessible on every ChromePdfRenderer instance.

The base64 PDF data is prepared for output onto the client's browser in the next section of the code:

@if (_url != string.Empty)
{
    // Render the PDF base64 data as a PDF in an iframe
    <iframe src="@_url" width="100%" height="500px"></iframe>
}

@if (_url != string.Empty)
{
    // Render the PDF base64 data as a PDF in an iframe
    <iframe src="@_url" width="100%" height="500px"></iframe>
}

This code snippet binds the base64 data to the src attribute of an iframe element. This causes browsers to use their built-in web viewers to render the Base64 content as an appropriate PDF document as soon as the page loads.

Here is an image of a PDF file that was generated from a base64 string.

Viewing a PDF Generated in a Blazor app in the browser

// Create a simple PDF document with the text "Hello world!!"
var pdfDocument = new IronPdf.ChromePdfRenderer().RenderHtmlAsPdf("Hello world!!");

// Create a simple PDF document with the text "Hello world!!"
var pdfDocument = new IronPdf.ChromePdfRenderer().RenderHtmlAsPdf("Hello world!!");

6. Conclusion

The tutorial shows how to use IronPDF Capabilities and Tutorials to create and display PDF documents in a Blazor Server app. It first introduces IronPDF and its capabilities, including how to convert HTML to PDF, adding custom headers and footers, and merging multiple PDFs. It then provides step-by-step instructions for installing IronPDF, creating a PDF file in a Blazor Server app and then converting it to a PDF byte array and displaying it on Blazor PDF viewer by using an iframe.

Overall, the tutorial provides a comprehensive overview of how to work with IronPDF and Blazor to create and display PDF documents. It encourages readers to experiment with IronPDF further and try out different features to create feature-rich applications.

If you're interested in trying out IronPDF in your Blazor project, you can take advantage of the free trial of IronPDF. This gives you ample time to experiment with the features and functionality of the library and see if it meets your needs.

To get started, you can refer to the IronPDF Documentation for Blazor, which provides detailed information on using the library in your project. You can also browse the IronPDF Blog and Tutorials for tutorials and articles that cover a range of topics related to PDF manipulation and rendering.

We encourage you to take the time to experiment with IronPDF and Blazor further and see how they can enhance your PDF-related development efforts. For more information on Blazor PDF viewer, please refer to the following IronPDF Blazor PDF Viewer Tutorial.