John,
Yes. No 4D form printing at all.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 10:14 AM JOHN BAUGHMAN via 4D_Tech <
4d_tech@lists.4d.com> wrote:
> Kirk, are you talking about creating the pdf strictly in code?
>
> Otherwise, as Pat pointed out 4D Write Pro can be used, as can 4D forms…
>
> SET PRINT OPTION(Destination option;3;$FolderPath+"MyTest.pdf")
> OPEN PRINTING JOB
> Print form("MyTest4DForm";Form header)
> CLOSE PRINTING JOB
>
> PDFs from 4D forms using this methodology works both on the client and on
> the server.
>
>
> John Baughman
> 1331 Auwaiku Street
> Kailua, Hawaii 96734
> (808) 262-0328
> john...@hawaii.rr.com
>
> > On Jun 14, 2018, at 5:37 AM, Pat Bensky via 4D_Tech <
> 4d_tech@lists.4d.com> wrote:
> >
> > Another option, which may or may not be suitable depending on the
> project,
> > is to build the document with 4DWrite Pro and then simply set the print
> > option and print it:
> >
> > *SET PRINT OPTION*(Orientation option;iPrintOption) // landscape or
> portrait
> >
> > *SET PRINT OPTION*(Destination option;3;$pathname) // PDF
> >
> > *WP USE PAGE SETUP*(oWPdoc)
> >
> > *WP PRINT*(oWPdoc)
> >
> > *SHOW ON DISK*($pathname)
> >
> > This will require you to learn how to program Write Pro, but I think that
> > will be a bit simpler than learning how to create PDFs, it won't cost you
> > any extra, and those skills might come in handy for other 4D projects :)
> >
> > Pat
> >
> > On Thu, 14 Jun 2018 at 16:22, Kirk Brooks via 4D_Tech <
> 4d_tech@lists.4d.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> I just chimed in on a conversation on the forums about using PDF Creator
> >> <http://forums.4d.com/Post/FR/24699370/1/24714745#24714745>. In this
> case
> >> the OP was asking about making it work on the server. I'm sure anyone
> who
> >> tried to make that work just gave a little sympathetic groan.
> >>
> >> Making PDFs is hard. True - with a Mac or Win10 it's become pretty
> easy to
> >> print-to-PDF. This is really a user-interface feature though. If you
> need
> >> to build a PDF in code and want to work with the BLOB of that document
> >> using the OS print features starts to fall apart. If you want to do
> this on
> >> the server it's a complete non starter in my view.
> >>
> >> This is where things get tricky in 4D land. Actually pretty much
> >> everywhere I suspect but I don't know everywhere. It's actually
> possible to
> >> build perfectly valid PDFs in native 4D. Neil Denis gave a Summit
> >> presentation in 2016 demonstrating this. Working with his demo gave me a
> >> workable solution for a bit. But sometimes the PDFs wouldn't be valid
> and
> >> wouldn't always open. I don't think it had anything to do with Neil's
> work
> >> but my own additions.
> >>
> >> From here I spent way too much time building my own PDF component in all
> >> native 4D. PDF language is all text based so there's no reason you
> can't do
> >> it in native 4D (well, without the flate/deflate compression). But it is
> >> hard. The challenge was sort of interesting to me and I now have a
> fairly
> >> good understanding of how a PDF document is structured internally. In
> the
> >> end I had a working solution for a specific set of uses and the files
> were
> >> always valid <https://www.pdf-online.com/osa/validate.aspx>. The
> problem
> >> was it wasn't a full solution. I didn't have bookmark capability, for
> >> example. Or form fields. It was decent but very limited.
> >>
> >> BTW - making PDF is hard. Debugging PDF is even harder.
> >>
> >> Prior to that I tried most of the other options I heard folks talk about
> >> here: PHP, HTMLTOX, various schemes for managing printing on user
> machines
> >> and probably some others I've blocked out of my memory. All of them
> worked
> >> to varying degrees of success but all of them also required a slightly
> >> different way of coding, for the ones that build the PDF in code. I
> could
> >> never sell the idea of the pricier solutions (this is for the in-house
> app
> >> I wrote).
> >>
> >> A couple of months ago the need for more robust PDF features came up.
> >> Looking at my work I realized it just wasn't worthwhile for me to spend
> the
> >> time to build it out in my own component so I took another look around
> at
> >> the available options. I happened to email Rob Laveaux with some
> question
> >> about his plugins. He got back to me suggesting I look at QPDF instead.
> And
> >> here is where this turns into a big plug for QPDF. The licensing on the
> >> older set is pricey. And at 1k euro QPDF isn't cheap but it has the same
> >> no-hassel many of his products do. QPDF uses a C library (DynaPDF,
> which is
> >> a large chunk of the licensing fee).
> >>
> >> Working with QPDF did require me to refactor the methods that produce my
> >> key documents. And I had to spend some time prior to that learning how
> to
> >> work with the new command set. I think the time I spent studying the
> Adobe
> >> docs on PDF construction helped make this go faster. The result is what
> I
> >> consider a successful refactor: cleaner code, less of it, more
> capability,
> >> better output. Plus a core PDF module that makes building new docs
> pretty
> >> simple.
> >>
> >> As I mentioned in the post on the forums I am starting to look at a
> 'print'
> >> job as more of 'producing a document' than a piece of paper. If it's
> >> something that needs to be stored, shared, downloaded from the web or
> >> produced on the server it's going to need to be produced in a blob and
> >> that's going to be a PDF. If it's truly something a user needs as a
> piece
> >> of paper it's a print job.
> >>
> >> Producing PDFs in code means no form editor. This isn't always a bad
> thing.
> >> Sometimes it's as much work to make a complex document render correctly
> >> through a 4D print form as it is to simply write the code to assemble
> the
> >> data. It really depends on the data and the document.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Kirk Brooks
> >> San Francisco, CA
> >> =======================
> >>
> >> *We go vote - they go home*
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > *************************************************
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--
Kirk Brooks
San Francisco, CA
=======================
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