Background

There is often a need in a project's reporting module to export a Grid View to a HTML File, so by considering that requirement I decided to write this article especially focusing on beginners and those who want to learn how to export a Grid View to HTML file using ASP.NET C#.

Now before creating the application, let us create a table named employee in a database from where we show the records in a Grid View, the table has the following fields (shown in the following image):


I hope you have created the same type of table.

Now create the project as:
  1. "Start" - "All Programs" - "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010".

  2. "File" - "New Project" - "C#" - "Empty Project" (to avoid adding a master page).

  3. Provide the Project name such as ExportGridToHTML or another as you wish and specify the location.

  4. Then right-click on Solution Explorer and select "Add New Item" then select Default.aspx page.

  5. One Button and a grid view.
Now the Default.aspx source code will be as follows:
  1. <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="ExportGridviewToHTML.Default" %>
  3. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
  4. <html>
  5. <head id="Head1" runat="server">
  6. <title></title>
  7. </head>
  8. <body bgcolor="Silver">
  9. <form id="form1" runat="server">
  10. <br />
  11. <h2 style="color: #808000; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bolder;">
  12. Article by Vithal Wadje</h2>
  13. <br />
  14. <div>
  15. <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" AutoGenerateColumns="false" runat="server" CellPadding="6"
  16. ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None">
  17. <AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" />
  18. <EditRowStyle BackColor="#7C6F57" />
  19. <FooterStyle BackColor="#1C5E55" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
  20. <HeaderStyle BackColor="#1C5E55" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
  21. <PagerStyle BackColor="#666666" ForeColor="White" HorizontalAlign="Center" />
  22. <RowStyle BackColor="#E3EAEB" />
  23. <SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#C5BBAF" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="#333333" />
  24. <SortedAscendingCellStyle BackColor="#F8FAFA" />
  25. <SortedAscendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#246B61" />
  26. <SortedDescendingCellStyle BackColor="#D4DFE1" />
  27. <SortedDescendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#15524A" />
  28. <Columns>
  29. <asp:BoundField DataField="id" HeaderText="id" />
  30. <asp:BoundField DataField="Name" HeaderText="Name" />
  31. <asp:BoundField DataField="City" HeaderText="City" />
  32. <asp:BoundField DataField="Address" HeaderText="Address" />
  33. <asp:BoundField DataField="Designation" HeaderText="Designation" />
  34. </Columns>
  35. </asp:GridView>
  36. <br />
  37. <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server"
  38. Text="Export To HTML" OnClick="Button1_Click" />
  39. </div>
  40. </form>
  41. </body>
  42. </html>

If you are a beginner and don't understand in detail how to bind a Grid View from a database then refer to my following article.

Now, for this article create the following function in the default.aspx.cs page to bind the Grid View:

  1. private void Bindgrid()
  2. {
  3. connection();
  4. query = "select *from Employee";//not recommended this i have written just for example,write stored procedure for security
  5. com = new SqlCommand(query, con);
  6. SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, con);
  7. DataSet ds = new DataSet();
  8. da.Fill(ds);
  9. GridView1.DataSource = ds;
  10. GridView1.DataBind();
  11. con.Close();
  12. }
Now, call the preceding function on page load as:
  1. protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  2. {
  3. if (!IsPostBack)
  4. {
  5. Bindgrid();
  6. }
  7. }
Now create the following function to export the Grid View to HTML File:
  1. private void ExportGridToHTML()
  2. {
  3. HtmlForm form = new HtmlForm();
  4. GridView1.AllowPaging = false;
  5. Bindgrid();
  6. Response.ClearContent();
  7. Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", string.Format("attachment; filename=VithalWadje.html"));
  8. Response.Charset = "";
  9. Response.ContentType = "text/html";
  10. StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
  11. HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
  12. form.Attributes["runat"] = "server";
  13. form.Controls.Add(GridView1);
  14. this.Controls.Add(form);
  15. Form.RenderControl(htw);
  16. Response.Write(sw.ToString());
  17. Response.Flush();
  18. Response.End();
  19. }
We have created the preceding function to export the GridView to a HTML file. Now call the preceding function on the Export HTML button click as:
  1. protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
  2. {
  3. ExportGridToHTML();
  4. }
The entire code of the default.aspx page will look as follows:
  1. using System;
  2. using System.IO;
  3. using System.Data;
  4. using System.Threading;
  5. using System.Data.SqlClient;
  6. using System.Configuration;
  7. using System.Text;
  8. using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
  9. using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
  10. using System.Web.UI;
  12. namespace ExportGridviewToHTML
  13. {
  14. public partial class Default : System.Web.UI.Page
  15. {
  16. private SqlConnection con;
  17. private SqlCommand com;
  18. private string constr, query;
  19. private void connection()
  20. {
  21. constr = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["getconn"].ToString();
  22. con = new SqlConnection(constr);
  23. con.Open();
  25. }
  26. protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  27. {
  28. if (!IsPostBack)
  29. {
  30. Bindgrid();
  32. }
  33. }
  34. private void Bindgrid()
  35. {
  36. connection();
  37. query = "select *from Employee";//not recommended this i have written just for example,write stored procedure for security
  38. com = new SqlCommand(query, con);
  39. SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, con);
  40. DataSet ds = new DataSet();
  41. da.Fill(ds);
  42. GridView1.DataSource = ds;
  43. GridView1.DataBind();
  44. con.Close();
  46. }
  48. protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
  49. {
  51. ExportGridToHTML();
  53. }
  54. private void ExportGridToHTML()
  55. {
  57. HtmlForm form = new HtmlForm();
  58. GridView1.AllowPaging = false;
  59. Bindgrid();
  60. Response.ClearContent();
  61. Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", string.Format("attachment; filename=VithalWadje.html"));
  62. Response.Charset = "";
  63. Response.ContentType = "text/html";
  64. StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
  65. HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
  66. form.Attributes["runat"] = "server";
  67. form.Controls.Add(GridView1);
  68. this.Controls.Add(form);
  69. Form.RenderControl(htw);
  70. Response.Write(sw.ToString());
  71. Response.Flush();
  72. Response.End();
  74. }
  76. }
  77. }
Now run the application and then we can see the following records in the Grid view:
Now click on the export text button, the following popup will appear:
Now click on the button by the selection option. Open it or save it on your system, to see that I will save it on my Desktop as:
Now double-click on the above file, then the Exported Grid view will look like as follows:
Now you see the Grid View exported to the HTML file and the Exported Grid view records we can see offline.

Notes
  • Download the Zip file from the attachment for the full source code of the application.
  • Change the connection string in the web.config file to specify your server location.
Summary

I hope this article is useful for all readers, if you have any suggestion then please contact me including beginners also.