Silent printing in IE using activeX

Report · Mar 04, 2019

Hello

I'm trying to pritn using adobe acrobat activeX

here is my code

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Print Test</title>

function startPrinting() {

var acrobatObj = document.createElement('object');

acrobatObj.width = '500';

acrobatObj.height = '500';

acrobatObj.classid = 'clsid:CA8A9780-280D-11CF-A24D-444553540000';

document.body.appendChild(acrobatObj)

acrobatObj.src = 'test.pdf';

window.setTimeout(

function () {

acrobatObj.print();

}, 1000); // how big timeout?

}

window.onload = startPrinting;

</script>

</head>

<body>

</body>

</html>

It works nicelly

Now the question- if user has low bandwidth, the setTimeout to 1 second is not enough.

In fact soem of users need to wait 1 minute to donlload respective file. While the others on stronger network, can print normally withoin one second

Is there a wya how the activeX would notify me "i have whole content"

I tried to play with cache, cookies sent prom the server, buffered reponse or session with no luck so far

Thanks

Zdenek

Report · Mar 07, 2019

Try embedding the code in the actual file, instead of doing it via the HTML page.

Report · Mar 07, 2019

Hello

what you mean by "embedding the code in the actual file"
I need to print from browsers (our app is in the browser, above is simplifed example)

How would that explain that it works in FF/Chrome and not in IE?

Thanks

Report · Mar 07, 2019

What I mean is add the printing code to a doc-level function of the PDF, like this:

this.print();

That way, when the file is opened (in a viewer that supports scripts correctly), the print dialog will immediately appear.

Report · Mar 07, 2019

Hello

Do you have working solution please?

I tried to add following snippet to the viewer.html from the solution above

window.onload = function(){

var printContentWindow = function () {

if (window!=null && window.PDFViewerApplication !=null

&& window.PDFViewerApplication.overlayManager

&& window.PDFViewerApplication.pdfViewer.pageViewsReady) {

console.info('pdf loaded and ready for printing');

window.print();

} else {

console.info('frame not ready for printing yet');

window.setTimeout(printContentWindow,1000);

}

printContentWindow.call(this);

}

</script>

with exactly the same result as before ( so the whole IE screenshot is printed)

as before works fine on Chrome/FF

Report · Mar 07, 2019

I told you what my suggestion is. You don't seem to want to try it, which is fine, but I can't help you beyond that.

Report · Mar 07, 2019

what do you mean by "you don't seem to want to try"

I did exactly what you told me, at least how I understand

and I received the same result

you said "in a viewer that supports scripts correctly" - so OK I add that to the viewer (i..e viewer.html)

if I understand it wrongly please tell where I'm wrong, or alternativelly please provide me working example

Thanks

Report · Mar 07, 2019

The "viewer" is the PDF plugin used to open the file, not an HTML page.

What I suggested is to embed JavaScript code in the PDF. It has nothing to do with HTML or ActiveX. You just adjusted your ActiveX code, which is not what I meant at all... If you want to do what I suggested open your file in Acrobat, go to Tools - JavaScript - Document JavaScripts and create a new item (call it "scripts") with the code I provided above. Then save the file and upload to your web-server, and post a normal link to it, without any additional code.

Report · Mar 07, 2019

Ok thanks, sorry I mixed two thread about similar topic

Now I start to understand.

So you are saying that if I load modified PDF document (with this.print script inside) in the AdobeActiveX, it will automatically print once the activeX will download the document, right?

Thanks a lot

Report · Mar 07, 2019

I don't know why you insist on using ActiveX. It's enough to simply open

the file and the script (should) execute.

It will not print the file, but it will open the Print dialog.

On Thu, 7 Mar 2019 at 22:54, zdenekh25139748 <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

Report · Mar 07, 2019

AciveX will automate process ( so it will open the file automatically, users do not want to open file themselves)

You have already answered original question, just in addition - what tool would you recomend to add such pdf dynamically

Means - our system has many (thousands ) of documents and I would like to modify pdf document (by adding javascript) right after the user try to print it (means click print button on our UI, rest should be automatic)

(so before server send pdf file to browser)

Thanks

Report · Mar 07, 2019

There are various PDF libraries out there, and I'm sure most of them can do it. If you're inclined to use Java I recommend PDFBox.

Report · Mar 08, 2019

Hello

This works nicelly as long as javascript API is enabled (I used PDFReader library)

So there is no way how to deal with that if javascript api is disabled?

As a additional question - is there a chance how to infrom parent page that this.print was called?

Like firing even from pdf document javascript and handling it over the ActiveX on the parent page?

(so I can hide progress bar informng user that application is still doing something)

Adobe Community

Silent printing in IE using activeX

1 Correct answer