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Automating the Printing of Report Groups

7 replies [Last post]
Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 51 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

I am trying to create a Script that will create a group of PDF Tabloid Reports based on Gantt View. But in my attempt the script recorder did not recorded some of the necessary steps. I could select My Layout Template and my Print Templates the print command was not recorded. Perhaps there is a command but is not listed under Spider Help.

Any suggestions will be welcomed. I need to make all printouts in similar format, and this includes the PDF printer settings and Report PDF names. Same way I was able to do it in SureTrak at a single click to Report Groups.

Best Regards,

Rafael 

Replies

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 51 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

Using a Script and novaPDF I can print all my report groups by a single click of the mouse and save them all in a single PDF as shown in the following youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spZ9b1QJ5yg

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 51 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229
I am missing the command to load the Print Template and Graphic Reports. Once this is done this perhaps will solve all my printing needs. Group Printing of course will be welcomed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCBQ7wFAJTM

Print Template

Best Regards

Rafael

Rafael,

in the new version of Spider project print report command was added to script language.

It is not described yet and the printer that is used is Windows default. We are at the beginning of this path, there are problems that remained unsolved (dialogs when printing, file names that shall be generated, ...).

Best Regards,

Vladimir

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 51 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

By the way I like the idea of a screen displaying the script commands as you record user actions. I don't recall SureTrack being capable of doing so. Great for when learning scripts commands.

Perhaps a combination of recording user actions and latter-on editing using script commands can be very useful. You can always backup original script to the job or to a file just in case you mess it. I prefer to always use recorder of actions even for editing as you can move the cursor on the script window and insert new command using user actions recording. I will go the easy way.

Yes, Rafael, this is the problem we shall to solve. If the file have the same name Windows will ask if to overwrite and the script may stop waiting for the answer. So the software shall generate unique file names.

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 51 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

This shall make it even if cannot control printer settings, I have no problem with setting my PDF printer as default printer along with the necessary settings. That is what I used to do with SureTrak at the end of the month when everyone called me to prepare such reports to be checked and reviewed several times in a hurry for the monthly payment application. For everyday reports I use my regular printer and not in such a hurry.

One thing I remember is that the name of the PDF report was different for each of the PDF files so there was no writing over all previous reports. There would be overwriting over similar named reports. I would print on an empty folder the reports to avoid overwriting. Hope this helps with the idea on report names to PDF files, not the same as printing to a physical printer. SureTrak would get the name perhaps from some report field but would overwrite if print performed again, maybe some sequential numbering for naming can be considered. I am sure Spider Team can improve on the functionality I had as described here. Perhaps a combination of some name and a suffix.

Best Regards,

Rafael

Rafael,

thank you for the proposal. Printing command is absent in our scripts, we will add it in the near future.

Best Regards,

Vladimir