Rotativa PDF generation working locally but not on IIS 7 - iis-7

Question

I have an ASP.NET MVC 5 application. It has a simple form and when the user submits it, the form is stored in the cache and then another controller action is called, this action will return the model as a view as a PDF.
I have no need to save it locally, just to show it in the browser so that the user can download it.
There is no need for a database either, that is why I store the model in the cache.
Locally, on Visual studio 2013, it works fine. But when I publish it to IIS 7 I get an Unhandled Execution Error. Here is the stack trace that I get back:
Unhandled Execution Error
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Exception:
Source Error:
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
Stack Trace:
[Exception]
Rotativa.WkhtmltopdfDriver.Convert(String wkhtmltopdfPath, String switches, String html) +1364
Rotativa.WkhtmltopdfDriver.ConvertHtml(String wkhtmltopdfPath, String switches, String html) +70
Rotativa.ViewAsPdf.CallTheDriver(ControllerContext context) +1986
Rotativa.AsPdfResultBase.BuildPdf(ControllerContext context) +380
Rotativa.AsPdfResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context) +69
System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilterRecursive(IList`1 filters, Int32 filterIndex, ResultExecutingContext preContext, ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionResult actionResult) +109
System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilterRecursive(IList`1 filters, Int32 filterIndex, ResultExecutingContext preContext, ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionResult actionResult) +890
System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionResult actionResult) +97
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass21.<BeginInvokeAction>b__1e(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +241
System.Web.Mvc.Controller.<BeginExecuteCore>b__1d(IAsyncResult asyncResult, ExecuteCoreState innerState) +29
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncVoid`1.CallEndDelegate(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +111
System.Web.Mvc.Controller.EndExecuteCore(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +53
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncVoid`1.CallEndDelegate(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +19
System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.<BeginProcessRequest>b__5(IAsyncResult asyncResult, ProcessRequestState innerState) +51
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncVoid`1.CallEndDelegate(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +111
System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +606
System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +288
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.0.30319.34248
I first used ActionAsPDF() but now I also tried to use return new ViewAsPDF(). Both give the same error and stack trace. Does this have to do something with permissions?

Answer 1

This error is a missing C++ redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2013 file called (MSVCP120.dll).
To solve the issue:
Open the C++ redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2013 downloadable link below:
download Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013
Click Download and choose the file (vcredist_x86.exe) even if you are running X64 bit server version.
Install the file.
Check Jalal W Hijazi Blog http://jwhijazi.blogspot.com/2015/05/solving-rotativa-unhandled-exception.html for more details.

Answer 2

As mentioned in the comments on the blog linked in the answer, you can just copy the 2 following dll files to the rotativa folder on the server if you don't want to / can't easily install things on the server.
msvcr120.dll
msvcp120.dll
If it's working locally, you should have the two dll files available already.
You need the x86 versions, if you find x64 versions packaged with vs 2015 they don't work. I found the right versions here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\redist\x86\Microsoft.VC120.CRT
After upgrading to Rotativa 1.7.3 this no longer worked. I had to copy over some new dlls from visual studio 2017, i found them here this time:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC\redist\x86\Microsoft.VC140.CRT
and i had to copy over
msvcp140.dll
vcruntime140.dll

Answer 3

The accepted answer almost worked for me. I was missing a newer version of the C++ redistributable so installing the old version didn't help.
The easiest way to find out what you are missing is to run wkhtmltopdf.exe manually. It will either give you console output (if working) or a message box about what's missing.
I was missing MSVCP140.dll, which is from the VS 2015 redist, available here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=48145

Answer 4

I fixed my issue by updating the wkhtmltopdf files from the installer found here
Working flawlessly now!

Answer 5

When I upgraded from Rotativa 1.6.4 to 1.7.3 my PDF conversion on my website app stopped working and after running the wkhtmltopdf.exe on my production server I noticed it was having an issue with msvcp140.dll
Solution was to install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

Answer 6

I faced the same problem. Even the error logger wasn't logging anything.
After some research, I tried replacing the wkhtmltopdf.exe with the latest version available in wkhtmltopdf.org website, still no luck.
Finally copied msvcp120.dll and msvcr120.dll to the folder where I had the excutable and it worked. (There was no need of the latest version of wkhtmltopdf.exe, instead it worked with the version what I got from Nuget.)
msvcp120.dll and msvcr120.dll were available in the below directory in Windows 7.
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\

Answer 7

I installed Visual C ++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2015
https://www.microsoft.com/pt-br/download/details.aspx?id=48145
This solved for me.