Spring MVC and PDF file via AbstractPdfView

Spring MVC comes with AbstractPdfView class to export data to pdf file via Bruno Lowagie’s iText library. In this tutorial, it show the use of AbstractPdfView class in Spring MVC application to export data to pdf file for download.

1. iText

Get the iText library to generate the pdf file.

    <!-- Pdf library --> 
    <dependency>
    <groupId>com.lowagie</groupId>
    <artifactId>itext</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.7</version>
    </dependency>

2. Controller

A controller class, generate dummy data for demonstration, and get the request parameter to determine which view to return. If the request parameter is equal to “PDF“, then return an Pdf view (AbstractPdfView).

File : RevenueReportController.java

package com.mkyong.common.controller;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.springframework.web.bind.ServletRequestUtils;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController;

public class RevenueReportController extends AbstractController{

    @Override
    protected ModelAndView handleRequestInternal(HttpServletRequest request,
        HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

        String output =
            ServletRequestUtils.getStringParameter(request, "output");

        //dummy data
        Map<String,String> revenueData = new HashMap<String,String>();
        revenueData.put("1/20/2010", "$100,000");
        revenueData.put("1/21/2010", "$200,000");
        revenueData.put("1/22/2010", "$300,000");
        revenueData.put("1/23/2010", "$400,000");
        revenueData.put("1/24/2010", "$500,000");

        if(output ==null || "".equals(output)){
            //return normal view
            return new ModelAndView("RevenueSummary","revenueData",revenueData);

        }else if("PDF".equals(output.toUpperCase())){
            //return excel view
            return new ModelAndView("PdfRevenueSummary","revenueData",revenueData);

        }else{
            //return normal view
            return new ModelAndView("RevenueSummary","revenueData",revenueData);

        }   
    }   
}

3. PdfRevenueReportView

Create a pdf view by extends the AbstractPdfView class, override the buildExcelDocument() method to populate the data to pdf file. The AbstractPdfView is using the iText API to generate the pdf file.

File : PdfRevenueReportView.java

package com.mkyong.common.view;

import java.util.Map;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.document.AbstractPdfView;
import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.Table;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class PdfRevenueReportView extends AbstractPdfView{

    @Override
    protected void buildPdfDocument(Map model, Document document,
        PdfWriter writer, HttpServletRequest request,
        HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {

        Map<String,String> revenueData = (Map<String,String>) model.get("revenueData");

        Table table = new Table(2);
        table.addCell("Month");
        table.addCell("Revenue");

        for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : revenueData.entrySet()) {
            table.addCell(entry.getKey());
            table.addCell(entry.getValue());
                }

        document.add(table);
    }
}

4. Spring Configuration

Create a XmlViewResolver for the Pdf view.

<beans ...>

 <bean 
  class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping" />

    <bean class="com.mkyong.common.controller.RevenueReportController" />

    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.XmlViewResolver">
       <property name="location">
          <value>/WEB-INF/spring-pdf-views.xml</value>
       </property>
    </bean>

</beans>

File : spring-pdf-views.xml

<beans ...">

   <bean id="PdfRevenueSummary"
    class="com.mkyong.common.view.PdfRevenueReportView">
   </bean>

</beans>

5. Demo

URL : http://localhost:8080/SpringMVC/revenuereport.htm?output=pdf

It generates a pdf file for user to download.