iTextSharp - Sending in-memory pdf in an email attachment

Question

I've asked a couple of questions here but am still having issues. I'd appreciate if you could tell me what I am doing wrong in my code. I run the code above from a ASP.Net page and get "Cannot Access a Closed Stream".

var doc = new Document();

MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();

PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, memoryStream);
doc.Open();
doc.Add(new Paragraph("First Paragraph"));
doc.Add(new Paragraph("Second Paragraph"));

doc.Close(); //if I remove this line the email attachment is sent but with 0 bytes 

MailMessage mm = new MailMessage("[email protected]", "[email protected]")
{
    Subject = "subject",
    IsBodyHtml = true,
    Body = "body"
};

mm.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(memoryStream, "test.pdf"));
SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient
{
    Host = "smtp.gmail.com",
    Port = 587,
    EnableSsl = true,
    Credentials = new NetworkCredential("[email protected]", "my_password")
};

smtp.Send(mm); //the "Cannot Access a Closed Stream" error is thrown here

Thanks!!!

EDIT:

Just to help somebody looking for the answer to this question, the code to send a pdf file attached to an email without having to physically create the file is below (thanks to Ichiban and Brianng):

var doc = new Document();
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, memoryStream);

doc.Open();
doc.Add(new Paragraph("First Paragraph"));
doc.Add(new Paragraph("Second Paragraph"));

writer.CloseStream = false;
doc.Close();
memoryStream.Position = 0;

MailMessage mm = new MailMessage("[email protected]", "[email protected]")
{
    Subject = "subject",
    IsBodyHtml = true,
    Body = "body"
};

mm.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(memoryStream, "filename.pdf"));
SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient
{
    Host = "smtp.gmail.com",
    Port = 587,
    EnableSsl = true,
    Credentials = new NetworkCredential("[email protected]", "password")

};

smtp.Send(mm);

Answer 1

Probably calling doc.Close() Disposes the underlying stream. Try removing doc.Close() and instead of that line set memoryStream.Position = 0;

Alternatively you can use a temp file:

var tempFilePath = Path.GetTempFileName();

try 
{           
    var doc = new Document();

    PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, File.OpenWrite(tempFilePath));
    doc.Open();
    doc.Add(new Paragraph("First Paragraph"));
    doc.Add(new Paragraph("Second Paragraph"));

    doc.Close();

    MailMessage mm = new MailMessage("[email protected]", "[email protected]")
    {
        Subject = "subject",
        IsBodyHtml = true,
        Body = "body"
    };

    mm.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(tempFilePath, "test.pdf"));
    SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient
    {
        Host = "smtp.gmail.com",
        Port = 587,
        EnableSsl = true,
        Credentials = new NetworkCredential("[email protected]", "my_password")
    };

    smtp.Send(mm);
}
finally
{
    File.Delete(tempFilePath);
}

Answer 2

Can you flush the document or memory stream and then close it after you attach it?

Answer 3

Have you tried:

PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, memoryStream);

// Build pdf code...

writer.CloseStream = false;
doc.Close();

// Build email

memoryStream.Position = 0;
mm.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(memoryStream, "test.pdf"));

If my memory serves me correctly, this solved a similar problem in a previous project.

See http://forums.asp.net/t/1093198.aspx

Answer 4

I tried the code posted by brianng and it worked. Just change the top of the code to this:

var doc = new Document();
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, memoryStream); //capture the object
doc.Open();
doc.Add(new Paragraph("First Paragraph"));
doc.Add(new Paragraph("Second Paragraph"));
writer.CloseStream = false; //set the closestream property
doc.close(); //close the document without closing the underlying stream
memoryStream.Position = 0;

/* remainder of your code stays the same*/

Answer 5

I had the same problem and I used this post to solve it.In the code written by brianng

PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, memoryStream);

// Build pdf code...

writer.CloseStream = false;
doc.Close();

// Build email

memoryStream.Position = 0;
mm.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(memoryStream, "test.pdf"));

I think instead of writing

writer.CloseStream = false and memoryStream.Position = 0;

Just create a new Stream

MemoryStream m = new MemoryStream(memoryStream);

and then call

mm.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(memoryStream, "test.pdf"));

Both work but I think it is better to create the new stream