SAP Spool Conversion to PDF

[former_member186495]

Hello Experts,

Recently we came across a scenario where we are trying to print a SAPScript form (pdf) average of about 3000+ pages / spool. Since the size of the spool is large every step of the processing (spool generation, output generation, etc.) taking huge time to complete.

I am looking for suggestion on below options as to how we can design it better and make it more robust and fast.

1. having a separate spool system (a separate VM) for more compute power.
2. take out the spool as a file and convert it outside of SAP (not sure if this is possible)
3. using SAPSprint (have to explore) or SAPPDFPRINT (only compatible with Adobe forms) options.

Has anyone ever faced a similar situation, our main pain currently is the runtime to generate the spool and converting that in to PDF.

Please throw your suggestions.

Thanks,

Kamal

[Laszlo_B · Accepted solution]

Hello Kamal,

first and foremost: frontend (dialog) mode should be avoided in this case.

Since frontend connections are sensitive to network (connection) issues, the results of large spools can vary.

So to answer the questions:

1. Do you mean installing a spool instance in the R/3 system? I can imagine such a requirement only if the "current" instance has so few Dialog / Spool Workprocesses that the long-running conversion blocks Workprocesses so long that end users notice performance loss due to it.
   Otherwise, you might want to check SAP Note #108799 - "How many spool work processes for each instance?" on how to distribute spool processing.
2. Although it is technically possible, third-party PDF converters are prone to unwanted format changes. See SAP KBA #1580639 - "Is a PDF software required in windows for PDF conversion via device PDF1?".
3. As the previous KBA also shows, the PDF1 / PDFUC Device Type can automatically convert the SAPScripts into PDF, so you only need to save the PDF into a file.
   See the previous KBA for a solution, also, see SAP KBA #1786932 - "Print to file via SAPSPRINT for Windows 7" for a solution with SAPSPrint.
   None of these solutions require SAPPDFPrint.

I know the KBA mentioned in point 2. is valid for frontend printing, but if the network staff can ensure that no interruptions will happen during the transfer of the PDF data, then it can be tested.

However, productive usage needs to be seriously monitored.

Best regards,

Laszlo

[former_member186495 · Accepted solution]

Thank You Laszlo - quite helpful.

Since we are using SAPScript forms, I believe for SAPPDFPRINT we need to have Adobe forms.

We also trying using PDFUC device type and it is working up to the expectation in preliminary testing/poc environment with the "Host Spool Access Method" as "Email Receiver" and I am getting large attachments in my email.

The next worry is how I can extract just the PDFs from any email using any standard or custom SAP code... I wish there would be access method to store the output as file or something...

/Kamal

[alexander_bolloni]

Hi,

OTF to PDF conversion for a large spooljob will take long if the documents contain images and/or truetype fonts. You do not need to do this via actual "printing" (to a printer with PDF device type). You could also try to have a background job do the conversion to PDF: run report RSTXPDFT4, enter the name of the spool request, and it will ask you if it should do the conversion via a background job. This job will generate another (binary) spool job with the PDF file which you can download (once job has completed) via RSTXPDFT5.

Regards,

Alex