Question

I am trying to generate a pdf using the Reporting services 2005 webservice. I have the pdf generation part working, but I am not sure how to get a “physical” pdf that I can attach to an email before sending it on its way.

I have created the pdf following this guide: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/reporting-services/PDFUsingSQLRepServices.aspx

public void RenderPdf(string rptMemo, string emailAddress )
{
    // Prepare Render arguments
    string historyID = null;
    string deviceInfo = null;
    string format = "PDF";
    Byte[] results;
    string encoding = String.Empty;
    string mimeType = String.Empty;
    string extension = String.Empty;
    Rse2005.Warning[] warnings = null;
    string[] streamIDs = null;

    //Credentials that will be passed to reporting services
    Rse2005.ReportExecutionService rsExec = new Rse2005.ReportExecutionService();
    rsExec.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password", "domain");

    //Report is called "Report1", it takes a parameter called "Id"
    Rse2005.ExecutionInfo ei = rsExec.LoadReport("/Reports/Report1", historyID);
    Rse2005.ParameterValue[] rptParameters = new Rse2005.ParameterValue[1];

    rptParameters[0] = new Rse2005.ParameterValue();
    rptParameters[0].Name = "Id";
    rptParameters[0].Value = RptMemo;

    //render the PDF
    rsExec.SetExecutionParameters(rptParameters, "en-us");
    results = rsExec.Render(format, deviceInfo, out extension, out encoding, out mimeType, out warnings, out streamIDs);


    HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=DetailedQuote.pdf");
    HttpContext.Current.Response.OutputStream.Write(results, 0, results.Length);

    //This is very important if you want to directly download from stream instead of file.
    HttpContext.Current.Response.End();
}

From this point I am able to call the RenderPdf method and I am prompted to open/save/cancel the file. I understand how to send an email with an attachment from the harddrive but I am not sure how to make results[] into a format I can handle.

thanks in advance

Answer 1

You should save the pdf to disk or memory and then use System.Net.Mail to send it
Here is a quick link from google.
http://www.systemnetmail.com/faq/3.4.2.aspx

You can write results from your example to a memory stream like so

    var memStream = new MemoryStream(); 
    memStream.Write(results, 0 , results.Length);

You should remove these 3 lines from your code

    HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=DetailedQuote.pdf");
    HttpContext.Current.Response.OutputStream.Write(results, 0, results.Length);
    HttpContext.Current.Response.End();