Printing in a new window

[Former Member]

Hi All.

I know this question has been discussed numerous times, and nearly all answers say that we should use Adobe forms for it.

Now, we want to save effort for creating forms for every application that requires printing.

We were able to convince users to use IE FIle-Print. But it shows all buttons, portal header, footer etc.

I was thinking on 2 lines:

1 - Give a print button on the application which when clicked would trigger IE FIle-print only. But i get control when the print button is clicked, so i can disable the buttons i dont want. But will i be able to remove portal header/footer?

2 - Open the same application in a new brower window via the create_external_window() method. That way everything works, but the contents of the current window go away and though the application opens up without the buttons, and everything else, the things that the user typed on the main screen are not there.

Any workaround for it please? (without the adobe option)

Thanks in advance.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Shweta,

If you are using Smartforms, then you can convert the smartform output into PDF and use PDF to print the information. This is the easiet workaround.

For this to work you will need to have ADS service installed and configured i.e. Java stack should be available.

Regards

Rohit Chowdhary

[Former Member]

Hey,

sounds interesting

though I don't know what Flle Printing is, I think I get the idea of the service call.

We also had to find a way for printing. We also didn't like the over the top idea of smart forms and adobe for only two print screens.

I only mad e pop up containing the same data read only, focusing on an ui element so the user jsut needs to print the whole thing on his own.

I also succesfully evaluated wether it is possible to automatically call the print dialogue in internet explorer, what the user had to do manualy (file -->print). I embedded a iframe pointing to a simple http site which contained the java script command window.print()

But on the other hand I didn't like the idea of iframes and automatic printing very much, so I didn't propose it - but it works

probably you give me more details on your approach, or tell me about your blog

kind regards

Stefan

[Former Member]

Well Stefan, you seem to have done something similar on what we are trying - opening a popup containing the same data in read only.

How did you manage to print the pop-up? Can you please tell in details? Thanks a lot !

[Former Member]

Any suggestions experts please?

[Former Member]

I came up with the following (working) solution:

1. Create a Portal Component that listens for a portal event, which triggers the javascript print() function.

2. Add a Print button to your Web Dynpro that fires the portal event.

This way only the frame containing the Web Dynpro gets printed.

I'll see if I can write a blog on this.

[Former Member]

Thanks Pascal.

But what you are saying seems similar to the default print functionality given in portal? There is a small link which if we click asks to open the contents in a new window. There are 2 problems with this approach:

1 - If user types something on the webdynpro form, and then clicks on that portal link to open in new window, the contents that he typed are not there.

2 - In this approach, we do not have any control also on what all buttons we do not want to show in printing.

That's why, I was thinking of opening my same window in a new pop-up window. I have tried that successfully, contents etc all come, and buttons also gone. But how to print the popup 'coz if we right-click, it gives the webdynpro menu?

Thanks in adv.