Web Application Designer (WAD) - Export to PDF contents

[Former Member]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm trying to modify the "Broadcast to PDF" settings in one of my web templates. Basically, end-users will run a report and run the broadcaster for that report. They will choose the output format to be a PDF. When they get the PDF in their email and open it up, I want to not only show the query, but also have a dynamic URL link contained within the PDF as well. As per my example, they would see the query itself, then at the bottom of the page, they would see a "Click Me" hyperlink that would open an IE session and direct them to a specified URL.

Anyone ever have any success with doing something similar? I've tried using the LINK_ITEM object... but when you open the PDF, it never brought along the hyperlink. Likewise, trying to insert a hyperlink directly or writing a javascript to execute within a container, also did not get brought along in the PDF. If you execute the report via iView, they all show up... it's just when you go to a PDF, the provided links never go along with them. I ran into a document that stated that you could only point to the following objects when the template is basically exported to a PDF:

● Analysis

● Chart

● Maps

● Report

● Info Field

● List of Exceptions

● List of Conditions

● Text

[http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/43/68ce8391886e47e10000000a422035/frameset.htm]

None of those objects allow you to embed an HTML hyperlink or javascript. Is this truly the limitation? Or has someone found a way to hack around this to include an embedded HTML hyperlink or javascript in the PDF output?

[former_member183777]

I did a quick test by adding a text item. The text item was set to http://www.yahoo.com . When it is exported to PDF, you can click on the link, eventhough it is not formatted like a link.

[Former Member]

Vineet,

I greatly appreciate your quick response. I can see what you are referring to. Adobe PDF reader has logic built in so that if it recognizes text in a URL format, it will automatically convert the text into a hyperlink to allow you to click and open the link.

I works, and I will give partial credit for your response. However, I was hoping that there would be a way for me to insert the hyperlink logic... embed it into the PDF, without Adobe doing the conversion themselves. As you know, some end users may not have a version of PDF reader that will do the automatic conversion. I know this day in age, those of us in the tech world always have the latest and greatest in technology. However, these PDFs are going out to our company Reps... some of which are really old school and typically have outdated software and usually. We have a lot of reps, and while it would probably be feasable to work with them to update their software for this very purpose, not being able to directly insert hyperlink logic as a script that the export would recognize, could be a potential issue in the future. Was just hoping it could be done, but I'm willing to accept that maybe it's just not possible in WAD... and for reasons like this (along with a very long list of others), everyone's moving to BO.