Scroll to the specific grid row using links in pdf

This post is an addition to our previously posted article showing how to create grids, and describes how to use PDF links for navigation between grid rows.

Imaging that you have a grid with many data rows and it spans across, say, five pages. You’d like to provide the viewer with a set or links quickly navigating to each 10^th, 20^th, etc. row. Here the Link property of ContentElement comes into play. Let’s use a slightly modified sample from section 2.5 Multipage Grid.

C# code:

public void CreateMultipageGridWithLinks()

{

    int rowCount = 45;

    // create resource manager and document object

    ResourceManager resourceManager = new ResourceManager();

    FlowDocument doc = new FlowDocument() { Margin = new Thickness(5) };

    // register a style for links

    doc.StyleManager.RegisterStyle(".link",

        new Style(){ Color = RgbColors.Blue, Margin = new Thickness(5)});

    // create grid with 4 autosized columns taking 100% of the available space

    Grid grid = new Grid(Length.Auto, Length.Auto, Length.Auto, Length.Auto);

    // add col headers

    grid.Add(new GridRow(new TextBlock("Order"), new TextBlock("Date"),

        new TextBlock("Customer"), new TextBlock("Paid")));

    // add data records

    for (int rowIndex = 1; rowIndex <= rowCount; rowIndex++)

    {

        string rowId = rowIndex.ToString();

        /* setting an id for the entire gridrow won't work because

           gridrow objects can't be matched via styles. They are

           special elements which don't actually exist on page.

           So, we assign the id to the first textbox in this row. */

        grid.Add(new GridRow(new TextBlock(rowId){Id=rowId}, new TextBlock("01/02/2015"),

            new TextBlock("Jon Doe"), new TextBlock("Yes")));

        // check if the row should get a link to it

        if (rowIndex % 10 == 0)

        {           

            // create textblock serving as link, 

            // and reference a row using id set to the first cell

            TextBlock link = new TextBlock(string.Format("Row {0} ↓", rowIndex));           

            link.Link = new CrossReference(rowId);

            link.Class = "link";

            doc.Add(link);

        }

    }   

    // add grid to document

    doc.Add(grid);

    // save document

    using (Stream stream = File.Create("multipage_grid_with_links.pdf"))

    {

        doc.Write(stream, resourceManager, new PageBoundary(Boundaries.A6));

    }

}

The code from above produces a set of links which, when clicked, navigate the viewer to the specific row. See the image below:

Pic. 9 Grid navigation

Note that the textblock links placed on top of the page, are connected to elements in grid using their Link property and a CrossReference object, describing the link. A cross reference is a link within the same document created using either element’s Id or its instance.

In order to reference a GridRow, you’d have to add a link to one of its cells because GridRow objects are special content elements. They group other objects together logically, but are not getting created on PDF page; thus, they can’t be linked to.

It’s also possible to create outbound links to other resources using LinkUri object, or bookmark page elements using the Bookmark property. Read more about Apitron PDF Kit for .NET component on its product page.

Complete downloadable version of this article can be found by the following link [PDF].