java - How to save a jtable on pdf with a jtable header

Question

I am able to save a jtable on pdf but table comes without a header please help me :

  Document document = new Document(PageSize.A4, 50.0f, 50.0f, 10.0f, 50.0f);
            PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance((Document)document,      (OutputStream)new FileOutputStream(this.file + ".pdf"));
              document.open();
               PdfContentByte cb1 = writer.getDirectContent();
         // modules table
              PdfTemplate template = cb1.createTemplate(2480.0f, 3500.0f);   
                  Graphics2D g1 =        template.createGraphics((float)this.jTable_Modules2.getWidth(),        (float)this.jTable_Modules2.getHeight());
   //                       this.jTable_Modules2.getViewport().setBackground(Color.WHITE);
             this.jTable_Modules2.print(g1);
                g1.dispose();
            com.itextpdf.text.Image image = com.itextpdf.text.Image.getInstance((PdfTemplate)template);
            image.scalePercent(60.0f);
            image.setAbsolutePosition(80.0f, 458.0f);

             document.add((Element)image);

   document.close();
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Transcript successfully generated");

Answer 1

As shown in this answer you can create a new JTable and pass it as the component to the getImageFromComponent(...) and it's header appart:

java.awt.Image img = getImageFromComponent(table.getTableHeader());
addImageToDocument(img);
img = getImageFromComponent(table);
addImageToDocument(img);

That in case you don't add the JTable to a JScrollPane, if you do, then you send the JScrollPane, for example:

java.awt.Image img = getImageFromComponent(scrollPane);
addImageToDocument(img);

It's up to you how you add the table... I prefer the scrollPane version :)

---

Another way would be to iterate through the JTable's data and use PdfPTable.

Based on this answer you can get something like this:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.PageSize;
import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.GrayColor;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class JTableToPdf {

    private JFrame frame;
    private JTable table;
    private JButton button;
    private Document document;
    private PdfWriter writer;
    private JScrollPane scrollPane;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new JTableToPdf().createAndShowGui();
            }
        });
    }

    public void openPdf() throws FileNotFoundException, DocumentException {
        document = new Document(PageSize.A4, 30, 30, 30, 30);
        writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream("myFile2.pdf"));
        document.open();
    }

    public void closePdf() {
        document.close();
    }

    public void addData(PdfPTable pdfTable) throws DocumentException {
        pdfTable.setHeaderRows(1);

        PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph(table.getColumnName(0)));
        cell.setBackgroundColor(new GrayColor(0.7f));
        pdfTable.addCell(cell);

        cell = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph(table.getColumnName(1)));
        cell.setBackgroundColor(new GrayColor(0.7f));
        pdfTable.addCell(cell);

        cell = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph(table.getColumnName(2)));
        cell.setBackgroundColor(new GrayColor(0.7f));
        pdfTable.addCell(cell);

        for (int i = 0; i < table.getRowCount(); i++) {
            for (int j = 0; j < table.getColumnCount(); j++) {
                pdfTable.addCell(table.getModel().getValueAt(i, j).toString());
            }
        }

        document.add(pdfTable);
    }

    public void createAndShowGui() {
        frame = new JFrame("PDF creator");

        int rows = 100;
        int cols = 3;

        String data [][] = new String[rows][cols];

        for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
            for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++) {
                data[i][j] = i + "-" + j;
            }
        }

        table = new JTable(data, new String []{"A", "B", "C"});
        table.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.RED));
        button = new JButton("Create PDF");

        scrollPane = new JScrollPane(table);

        button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                try {
                    PdfPTable pdfTable = new PdfPTable(table.getColumnCount());
                    openPdf();
                    addData(pdfTable);
                    closePdf();
                } catch (FileNotFoundException e1) {
                    e1.printStackTrace();
                } catch (DocumentException e1) {
                    e1.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });

//      frame.add(table.getTableHeader(), BorderLayout.NORTH);
        frame.add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        frame.add(button, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }
}

If you don't want the header to repeat on every page just remove the lines before the for loops on addData(...) method.

---

A third method could be using the JTable's printable methods, but I don't own a printer here, I'll work on this sample later, since I don't have much time at the moment and I'm not sure how to integrate that with iText so I must search a little...

---

PHEW! It took me a while to create this result, but I think it works nice (though you need to restore the JTable after creating the PDF).

Have a look at the code comments and tell me if this helps. I combined the use of the PDFPTable and the image approach to get to this new approach:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.Image;
import com.itextpdf.text.PageSize;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class JTable2Pdf {

    private JFrame frame;
    private JTable table;
    private JButton button;
    private JScrollPane scrollPane;
    private DefaultTableModel model;
    private DefaultTableModel restoreModel;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new JTable2Pdf().createAndShowGui();
            }
        });
    }

    public void restoreTableView() {
        table.setModel(restoreModel);
        frame.revalidate();
        frame.repaint();
    }

    public void createAndShowGui() {
        frame = new JFrame("PDF creator");
        int rows = 130;
        int cols = 3;

        String data[][] = new String[rows][cols];

        for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
            for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++) {
                data[i][j] = i + "-" + j;
            }
        }

        model = new DefaultTableModel(data, new String[] { "A", "B", "C" });

        restoreModel = new DefaultTableModel(data, new String[] { "A", "B", "C" });

        table = new JTable(model);

        //Just some borders for the table and its header
        table.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.RED));
        table.getTableHeader().setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.RED));

        scrollPane = new JScrollPane(table);

        button = new JButton("Create PDF");

        button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                try {
                    //We create an instance of pdfCreator and pass our JTable as instance
                    PdfCreator pdfCreator = new PdfCreator(table);

                    //We open the pdf and say we want to repeat the header for each page
                    pdfCreator.openPdf(true);
                    //Then we add the header (if we don't add it first, then the 1st row of the table will be the one repeating over the pages
                    pdfCreator.addImageToTable(pdfCreator.getImageFromComponent(table.getTableHeader()));
                    //Then we add the rows to the PDF
                    pdfCreator.getRowsImage();
                    //Finally we close the PDF
                    pdfCreator.closePdf();
                    //And last we restore the table
                    restoreTableView();

                } catch (DocumentException e1) {
                    e1.printStackTrace();
                } catch (FileNotFoundException e1) {
                    e1.printStackTrace();
                } catch (IOException e1) {
                    e1.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });

        frame.add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        frame.add(button, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }
}

class PdfCreator {

    private JTable table;
    private Document document;
    private PdfWriter writer;
    private boolean isNewPage;
    private PdfPTable pdfTable;

    public PdfCreator(JTable table) {
        this.table = table;
    }

    //This method opens the PDF, repeatHeader if true, adds the header to each page, otherwise it only adds it to the 1st one
    public void openPdf(boolean repeatHeader) throws FileNotFoundException, DocumentException {
        document = new Document(PageSize.A4, 30, 30, 30, 30);
        writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream("myFile.pdf"));
        pdfTable = new PdfPTable(1);
        if (repeatHeader) {
            pdfTable.setHeaderRows(1);
        }
        pdfTable.getDefaultCell().setBorder(PdfPCell.NO_BORDER);
        pdfTable.getDefaultCell().setPadding(0);
        document.open();
    }

    //This method closes the document
    public void closePdf() {
        document.close();
    }

    //This method gets the image for each row recursively
    //As this method gets the graphics for the table from 0, 0 to the width and length determined, we need to remove the 1st row of the table
    //each time we go through it and that's why we need to restore the table model later in the code
    public void getRowsImage() throws DocumentException, IOException {
        if (table.getRowCount() > 0) {
            int width = table.getCellRect(0, 0, true).width + table.getCellRect(0, 1, true).width + table.getCellRect(0, 2, true).width;
            int height = table.getCellRect(0, 0, true).height;

            BufferedImage img = new BufferedImage(width, height, BufferedImage.TYPE_IN