creating webpart to display PDF using itextsharp on modal dialog

Question

Trying to create webpart.

Steps to be achieved.

1. user clicks on an item(PDF file) in library, URL override required from Sharepoint.
2. displaying PDF on modal dialog (not using Adobe plug-in from web-browser)

I'm newbie to Sharepoint.

If someone can show me how to implement this step by step it's saving my life.

Main reason for this is to prevent user downloading to local HDD. after this, I'm planning to add watermark display only on screen and print-out will not have this watermark.

Answer 1

Use this function:

<script type="text/javascript">
        //User Defined Function to Open Dialog Framework
        function OpenDialog(strPageURL, strTitle) 
        {
          var dialogOptions = SP.UI.$create_DialogOptions();
          dialogOptions.url = strPageURL;// URL of the Page
          dialogOptions.width = 800; // Width of the Dialog
          dialogOptions.height = 600; // Height of the Dialog
          dialogOptions.title = strTitle;
          dialogOptions.dialogReturnValueCallback = Function.createDelegate( null, CloseCallback); // Function to capture dialog closed event
          SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog(dialogOptions); // Open the Dialog
          return false;
        }

        // Dialog close event capture function
        function CloseCallback(strReturnValue, target) 
        {
          if (strReturnValue === SP.UI.DialogResult.OK) // Perform action on Ok.
            {
           //alert("User clicked Ok!");
                return false;
            }
          if (strReturnValue === SP.UI.DialogResult.cancel) // Perform action on Cancel.
           {
           //alert( "User clicked Cancel!");
                return false;
           }
        }

        </script>

Place OpenDialog function on your masterpage, then you can call it from everywhere you need. For Example, I have document library with XSLT, I call OpenDialog function from here.

<a href="" onclick="return OpenDialog('{@FileRef}','{@Title}');">
    <xsl:value-of select="@Title" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
</a>

Just parsing your pdf path and title into OpenDialog function.

Answer 2

In order to display a PDF as an image you need a library that can 'rasterize' the PDF on the server. To the best of my knowledge iTextSharp does not have this facility.

Why don't you look at an out of the box product such as Foxit's PDF Reader for SharePoint, which does something similar.

There are also some excellent SharePoint watermarking products out there, including the one created by my company :-)