How to add HTML headers and footers to a page?

Question

How to add header to pdf from an html source using itext?

Currently, we have extended PdfPageEventHelper and overriden these methods. Works fine but it throws a Runt

Answer 1

Bruno's anwser is correct but it didn't worked for me completely as XMLWorkerHelper.parsetoElementsList was not able to parse some system fonts on the other hand XMLWorkerHelper.getInstance().parseXHtml(writer, document, is); } was able to parse system fonts correctly so i have to go down the route of elements handler which worked a treat here's the code in C#

    /// 

    /// returns pdf in bytes.
    /// 
    /// contents.
    /// header contents.
    /// footer contents.
    /// 
    public Byte[] GetPDF(string contentsHtml, string headerHtml, string footerHtml)
    {
        // Create a byte array that will eventually hold our final PDF
        Byte[] bytes;

        // Boilerplate iTextSharp setup here

        // Create a stream that we can write to, in this case a MemoryStream
        using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
            // Create an iTextSharp Document which is an abstraction of a PDF but **NOT** a PDF
            using (var document = new Document(PageSize.A4, 40, 40, 120, 120))
            {
                // Create a writer that's bound to our PDF abstraction and our stream
                using (var writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, ms))
                {
                    // Open the document for writing
                    document.Open();

                    var headerElements = new HtmlElementHandler();
                    var footerElements = new HtmlElementHandler();

                    XMLWorkerHelper.GetInstance().ParseXHtml(headerElements, new StringReader(headerHtml));

                    XMLWorkerHelper.GetInstance().ParseXHtml(footerElements, new StringReader(footerHtml));

                    writer.PageEvent = new HeaderFooter(headerElements.GetElements(), footerElements.GetElements());

                    // Read your html by database or file here and store it into finalHtml e.g. a string
                    // XMLWorker also reads from a TextReader and not directly from a string
                    using (var srHtml = new StringReader(contentsHtml))
                    {
                        // Parse the HTML
                        iTextSharp.tool.xml.XMLWorkerHelper.GetInstance().ParseXHtml(writer, document, srHtml);
                    }

                    document.Close();
                }
            }

            // After all of the PDF "stuff" above is done and closed but **before** we
            // close the MemoryStream, grab all of the active bytes from the stream
            bytes = ms.ToArray();
        }
        return bytes;
    }
}

page events and elements handler code is here

public partial class HeaderFooter : PdfPageEventHelper
{
    private ElementList HeaderElements { get; set; }
    private ElementList FooterElements { get; set; }

    public HeaderFooter(ElementList headerElements, ElementList footerElements)
    {
        HeaderElements = headerElements;
        FooterElements = footerElements;
    }

    public override void OnEndPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
    {
        base.OnEndPage(writer, document);
        try
        {
            ColumnText headerText = new ColumnText(writer.DirectContent);
            foreach (IElement e in HeaderElements)
            {
                headerText.AddElement(e);
            }
            headerText.SetSimpleColumn(document.Left, document.Top, document.Right, document.GetTop(-100), 10, Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE);
            headerText.Go();

            ColumnText footerText = new ColumnText(writer.DirectContent);
            foreach (IElement e in FooterElements)
            {
                footerText.AddElement(e);
            }
            footerText.SetSimpleColumn(document.Left, document.GetBottom(-100), document.Right, document.GetBottom(-40), 10, Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE);
            footerText.Go();
        }
        catch (DocumentException de)
        {
            throw new Exception(de.Message);
        }
    }
}

public class HtmlElementHandler : IElementHandler
{
    public ElementList Elements { get; set; }

    public HtmlElementHandler()
    {
        Elements = new ElementList();
    }

    public ElementList GetElements()
    {
        return Elements;
    }

    public void Add(IWritable w)
    {
        if (w is WritableElement)
        {
            foreach (IElement e in ((WritableElement)w).Elements())
            {
                Elements.Add(e);
            }
        }
    }
}