#Filemaker pro 11 printing problems pdf#
#Filemaker pro 11 printing problems pro#
#Filemaker pro 11 printing problems download#

#Filemaker pro 11 printing problems pro#

FileMaker Server can then attach and send the reports via a scheduled scriptВ or the copy of FileMaker Pro could just do this itself.

#Filemaker pro 11 printing problems pdf#

Because FileMaker Server cannot produce the PDF, we insteadВ call on the help of a Robotcopy of FileMaker Pro to do the effort of PDF generation. This is not an uncommon technique andВ is something that sometimes is used when reports need to be e-mailed to users on a nightly basis. Go is obviously not an option so lets use FileMaker Pro! What we need to do is have a copy of FileMaker Pro responsible for the PDF generation of WebDirect user initiated reports. The only two FileMaker platforms capable of generating a PDF is FileMaker ProВ and FileMaker Go. Unfortunately FileMaker Server is unable to nativelyВ generate a PDF. This is at the heart of the entire framework. How will we generate a PDF for the WebDirect user?

What has that got to do with anything you ask? Well, it means displaying a PDF within WebDirect is pretty nice, so if we could generate a report as a PDF and display that to the WebDirect user instead, then this should allow them to scroll through it, preview it, and subsequently print it via printing of the PDF. One thing WebDirect does do quite well is displaying interactive container data. Okay so it doesn't print, so what can it do? Side note: when we say printing in this article what we really mean is preview mode and all that goes along with that (such as printing). Without Preview modeВ we also have no ability for producing complex sub-summary reports or sliding of records. Any lists of recordsВ or any layout that cannot fit entirely in the visible window will not print. This however is a very poor substituteВ as the browser will only print the visible window contents. The implications of no printing in WebDirectД«ecause the Print script step is unsupported in WebDirect, the only other way to print is through the browsers print function.

One of the key features it lacks though is the ability to print reportsВ and this is quite an important feature if WebDirect is to be used as a substitute for FileMaker Pro as a deployment platform. Most FileMaker Pro functionality is there in WebDirect and the overall experience can be made to feel very similar to FileMaker Pro. Whereas IWP was fairly static, the goal for WebDirect is to be more dynamic and responsive to user interaction.

#Filemaker pro 11 printing problems download#

You can download the revised example file at the bottom of this article.ДЇor those not familiar with WebDirectВ think of it as Instant Web Publishing enhanced. When this off-screen window closed, the script focus was actually returned to the main window, not the popup which launched the off-screen window, a bug if ever I saw one! We have modified the example file to explicitly change context back to the RoboPrint popup once processing of print-jobs has been completed. Interestingly, this script runs in the context of a popup window, and we were using a third off-screen window to carry out individual print jobs. The issue was in the 'RoboPrint - Process Print Jobs' script.

Thank you to some readers who pointed out a few bugs in the example file affecting windows users.