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  • Generating Charts from Data in MMSQL and sending them as attachment (PDF) in email

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    I am currently in a state of doubt whether I am doing the things in the right way. Basically, I have a task where data which is stored in a normalised db in MSSQL needs to be queried for so as to display them in different charts. These charts then needs to be converted in a custom PDF and are to be sent as an email attachment automatically.

     

    What I am doing: I am currently querying the data using LINQ, modifying the data to make them in JSON structure in the server side. Then in the client side, I am using AJAX to consume the JSON data and displaying it using google charts. Then, I am using jsPDF to generate the PDF by clicking a button.

     

    The solution I currently have works fine, however it is slightly manual, in the sense that I need to click a button to generate the PDF and send email. Do you recommend a better workflow to get the data, produce them as charts (even if these are done in server side) and send them as an email in one automatic process? I never used SSIS, SSRS and SSAS, so these might be good to look into. 

    Any feedback on this please?

 1 Answer(s)

  • Hi Andrew,
    You are using asp.net so you can use RDLC for your reporting. Now if you want to know about RDLC or how to work with RDLC in Asp.net take a look at following link:
    Creating RDLC Report in Asp.Net

    You can save those reports as PDF manually(as there is an option in the report viewer) or by code. I am sharing some code snippets which you can use for your solution.
    For converting your reports to a PDF:

      private string ExportReportToPDF(string reportNamewithFullPath)
        {
           Warning[] warnings;
           string[] streamids;
           string mimeType;
           string encoding;
           string filenameExtension;
           byte[] bytes = ReportViewer1.LocalReport.Render(
              "PDF", null, out mimeType, out encoding, out filenameExtension,
               out streamids, out warnings);
    
           string filename = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), reportNamewithFullPath);
           using (var fs = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Create))
           {
              fs.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
              fs.Close();
           }
    
           return filename;
        }
    

    For sending that pdf via mail:

    private void BtnSendByMail_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
          Mail mail = sendMailView.CurrentItem;//some mail helper class. you can use your own
          mail.AttachmentFiles.Add(ExportReportToPDF(yourRdlcReportPath));
          mail.DeleteFilesAfterSend = true;
          mail.RequireAutentication = true;
          mail.Send();
    }
    

    So these are the two methods which you can combine to create complete code as per your requirement.

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