Document Converting

[M45HY]

Hi Guys,

I just had a quick query and was wondering whether anyone could help and increase my knowledge about printing from JADE.

We have several utilities that when run, produce a report in the form of a text file. However, if we were to print some of these reports, then they are combined with a template, which one of my predecessors created and then sends this to a printer that we specifiy. I have recently been asked that rather than printing the file, whether the report - alongside the template - could be converted into a PDF and stored in a user-defined location.

I had the following queries and was wondering whether someone could enlighten me:

• I have downloded CutePDF alongside GhostScript but was wondering how this could be integrated within PrintDB (if this is where it would go)

• Not sure if I'm correct, but I believed that if a file was to be converted, there needs to be a physical file (i.e. sample.txt -> sample.pdf) but according to sofe of my collegues, PrintDB does not produce a physical file as it doesn't need to. It simply combines the template and text and sends it to the printer.

• Are there any documents that are provided by JADE that I can look up?

Thanks guys. Any help will be appreciated.

Mashy

[murray]

Hi Mashy,
We also have PrintDB. It is not a core part of the Jade product, but rather an add-on application provided to manage printing for a JET converted system (Jade conversion from LINC). You probably have a JetPlusSchema below the root schema.
Our PrintDB has been extensively modified for our own purposes over the last 10 year, and it sounds like yours has been too. PrintDB may store print output as JadeReport objects or as plain text. Printing may be to a Windows printer or a remote print queue. We store plain text output which is sent to a remote print queue using 'LPR' commands.

However your print files are being processed/stored, you should have the raw text available at some point in the process. The raw text can be saved to regular files (external to the Jade database) using Jade "File" objects. You will need to set up some supporting infrastructure: e.g. parameters to define file paths, directories, naming conventions, etc.

We have a point in the processing where, for some jobs, we may convert the file to a PDF file using a third-party ActiveX which is imported into Jade. Sorry, but I won't recommend you to use the one we use , but there are many available to choose from, some better than others (search this forum for some examples). Otherwise you could use an entirely external process to convert your saved TXT files to PDF.

If you want, I can PM some classes and methods to look at (I am not at work at the moment), but these may not match your system.

[M45HY]

Hi Murray,

Thank you for you response.

You're spot on; our system was jetted to JADE and from the sounds of it, our systems do sound similar.

I would be most obliged if you could send me some methods and classes to look at. Also, I believe I can convert the raw text file to PDF; that's not a problem. The problem is how I can covert the print out (i.e. once the raw text file has been placed on to a form design template) but before it has actually been physically printed out. The idea that my director had was that once the raw text file has been placed on a template, the system would then send it to a printer but rather than a printer, is it not possible to provoke an external software to take the file (text and template) and produce a PDF to a location that we wanted?

My thought was that the raw text is placed on the form template and then sent to a printer and that because there is no file storing before it is sent to a printer, it cannot be converted. Is this correct?

Mashy

[murray]

I'll send you a P.M. after the weekend.

[M45HY]

Hi Guys,

I have inserted an examplary visual aid that will hopefully outline my issue.

The Raw Text File (A) is physically stored on the server and PrintDB will get this Raw Text File and somehow acknowledge that it needs to combine this data with a template (that has been pre-designed by us), so it prints both of the objects out together so that you get the following output (B). My issue is that rather than combining the 2 objects and printing them, I want the system to combine the 2 objects, convert them into a PDF format and store it in a desired location. We have purchased some external software that can convert files into PDF's but it's about configuring it within JADE/PrintDB to convert an unknown file type (Raw Text File and Template) that is not physically stored anywhere and then store it in a desired location.

Regards,

Omash

[BeeJay]

Why don't you simply 'print' the output to a 'printer driver' that instead of physically printing the report to paper writes it to a specified PDF file?

This would work for all of your reporting that you want converted to PDF files instead of physically printed.

There are numerous PDF 'printer drivers' available for you to choose from, so you'd need to review the options to determine which one best suits your needs.

Cheers,
BeeJay.

[M45HY]

Hi BeeJay,

That is what I want to do but I'm not sure how to. I have downloaded CutePDF and I have given it the printer name 'PDF' in PrintDB so that it is easy to identify what it is but I'm unable to understand how I can use it in PrintDB. For example, if I wanted to print a Word document using CutePDF, it asks me where I want the converted file to be stored. But how do I configure this with PrintDB so that when a report is ran and is sent to the a printer called 'PDF', it should convert the file and put in a certain location?

Regards,

Omash

[BeeJay]

For CutePDF it looks like you need their 'custom SDK' version if you want to avoid the 'Save as' dialog box. Refer to the following link for more details:

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/sdk/pdfwriter2.asp

[JohnP]

I know that WIN2PDF and AmiUni have been used successfully in JADE implementations (including avoiding the Save As dialog box), but I don't have first-hand knowledge of how to use them.