Further Control of Printing - Article

Further Control of Printing 3 January 2002

If I had a pound for every time I had started an article with the line "If I had a pound for every time....". Do you see what I've done there?? Sorry, I'm in a daft mood today. Must be all the Christmas food and drink gone to my senses.

Seriously though, there are questions that I get asked so many more times than others that it gets to a point where I have to find out how and then write about it. Even though, in this case, it's not something you would actually find me doing unless I was pressed in to it. In the words of Ruth Harris (the last person to ask me) here's the problem:

The form is several pages long, and when users print out their finished form (in IE5) , it has the lengthy URL at the bottom of each page. Is there any way to make that not print out? It is ugly and looks intrusive on the page.

The answer I usually give depends on the mood I am in. Catch me in a good mood and I'll say "Yes, it can." However, it's the nature of the solution that leads me to sometimes say no. Whether or not you decide to use it is, of course, down to you.

A little background:

Whether or not you see the URL of the current page printed on the page is a part of the Page Setup [File - Page Setup] settings for the user's browser, as shown below.

Notice that the Footer box contains the MetaSymbol &u. This tells the browser to print the URL. The others correspond to the following:

Internet Explorer Header and Footer Metasymbols
To print specific information as part of the **header** or **footer**, include the following characters as part of the text
Type this	To print this
&w	Window title
&u	Page address (URL)
&d	Date in short format (as specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel)
&D	Date in long format (as specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel)
&t	Time in the format specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel
&T	Time in 24-hour format
&p	Current page number
&P	Total number of pages
&&	A single ampersand (&)
&b	The text immediately following these characters as centered.
&b&b	The text immediately following the first "&b" as centered, and the text following the second "&b" as right-justified.

Using the above symbols you can print as little (nothing) or as much information as you like. Note however that these settings apply to all pages once they have been changed.

The solution:

Well, not one but three really. The second is the preferred in my opinion but the third is probably the most interesting and the one I'll spend the most time discussing.

The first and simplest is to tell the user to open the Page Setup dialog and remove the &u meta-symbol. Not very desirable but it works and it can be applied on a basis of only those that object to the URL need to be told how.

Secondly you can administer this via your NT Network using something like IEAK or another central Registry control technique. Either of these would simply control the content of the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PageSetup\footer

The third and most complex is to use Mead & Co's ScriptX. This is an ActiveX component that, once downloaded, can allow the developer complete control over the printing process.

When you opened this page (if you are using IE) you probably saw a prompt to accept the install of an ActiveX component. Sorry if this shocked you but I've had to embed this object so that I can demonstrate the technique. If you declined the install initially then you may want to reload the page and accept it. This way you can see what I am talking about. You only need to do this once.

Assuming you have installed the component then you can use the following button to print this page. Notice the difference in the Header and Footer.

Here's another example where you can decide what the Header and Footer should be "on the fly".

Customised Print Settings
Header:		Footer:
Prompt:	Show settings dialog

So, there you have it. Using JavaScript and the ScriptX component you can cater for occasions where you don't want to see the URL at the bottom of a printed page.

Using ScriptX in Domino:

First thing you need to do is add the ScriptX Cab file as a resource to your site. You can then let users download it, with or without an internet connection. Download it either from the Meadroid site or from the link near the top of this page.

In Domino Designer, go the Image Resource section and choose to add a new one. Navigate to the folder with your ScriptX.cab file in it and type "*.cab" in the File Name box. Select the file and press Open:

You can now add the following PassThru HTML code to the form that is going to be printed.



<object classid="clsid:1663ed61-23eb-11d2-b92f-008048fdd814" id="factory" codebase="ScriptX.cab#Version=5,60,0,375" style="display:none" viewastext>

</object>

You will of course need to alter the codebase attribute so that it points to the correct path of your database. To make this easier I highler recommend you use this method. Next time a user opens this form they will see a prompt to install the component. Most of them will probably just say yes....

Now you just need to add some JavaScript to handle the methods and properties of this new object. How much you add depends on how you want to handle print requests. The most basic would look something like this.



function PrintBasic() {

document.factory.printing.header = "MeadCo\'s ScriptX Changed This";

document.factory.printing.footer = "";

document.factory.printing.Print(true);

}

You can make this even more powerful using the following settings:



document.factory.printing.portrait = false

document.factory.printing.leftMargin = 1.0

document.factory.printing.topMargin = 1.0

document.factory.printing.rightMargin = 1.0

document.factory.printing.bottomMargin = 1.0

These are the just the properties available to unregistered copies of the ScriptX component. License it and you get a whole lot more, extremely useful, functionality.

Summary:

Whether or not you like this method it certainly seems to answer the above problem. How it does it may not be so slick but it shows how powerful ActiveX components can be.

I have only demonstrated the basic features of the ScriptX download. Have a look at their website and see what else it can do for your site. This is also where you will find answers to most problems you may have when implementing the above solution. I have refrained from going in to too much detail as it is all covered in the documentation that comes with the download on the site. They also discuss the necessary settings of the browser for the download to be allowed and provide lots more examples.

Further reading:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/en-us/dnscrpt/html/dhtmlprint.asp

Feedback

- P.Ravi
- Thu 28 Feb 2002
thankyou verymuch
It is very usefull to us.... thankyou verymuch

Reply
- David Nasvik
- Tue 2 Apr 2002
Print with background-colors?
Help,
I must have (customer pay) an activeX-object that allows me as programmer to change the prints in IE to use: print with background-colors/images? Is it possible with the registred version?
Best Regards Dave

Reply
1. - Jack Ratcliff
  - Thu 4 Apr 2002
  Re: Print with background-colors?
  Yes, it's possible. If you have a registered version of ScriptX you can specify to print the background colors and images with this line of code.
  printing.printBackground = true
  here's the link to this property: http://www.meadroid.com/scriptx/docs/printdoc.htm#printBackground
  here's a link to the entire reference doc http://www.meadroid.com/scriptx/docs/printdoc.htm#refs
  
  Reply
  
  Show the rest of this thread
  1. - Dwight Davis
    - Wed 28 Jul 2004
    Re: Print with background-colors?
    WOW, this was exactly what I was looking for... thanks
    
    Reply
- sagar
- Tue 9 Apr 2002
Error message not acceptable...
It was very good stuff..But one problem.. If the user doesnot download the ScriptX.cab object i.e says no when prompted for download...then if he clicks on Print button.. Now an error is thrown saying Object not found(which is obvious).. But he problem is since you cannot control the user atleast it should be made sure that in case he doesnot download the stuff..there is no error shown to him..may be some message may be popped up saying ..." For Printing you need to download the Object"..etc etc.. I tried with my appication biult on ASP.On clients end it's showing JavaScript error if I donot download the object..CHow can I avoid this...???
I tried to do but it's not working ...in the sense how to know whether the user has downloadd the stuff or not..??? Plz help if possible....

Reply
1. - James Jennett
  - Tue 9 Apr 2002
  Re: Error message not acceptable...
  S,
  You could try making an early call to
  document.factory.printing.Print(true);
  and if the result of this call is an error or some other rubbish, then you know the user is not running that object, and alert him/her to some url or whatever to d/l it.
  Or make installation of the object part of the standard Notes install for your employer. Where possible.
  
  Reply
  
  Show the rest of this thread
  1. - Jake Howlett
    - Tue 9 Apr 2002
    In other words...
    Good point you guys. Slap my wrist for not considering this in the first place!
    Here's an improved version of the function: [<br clear="all" /><pre class="javascript">]function PrintBasic() { // -- basic features if ( document.factory.printing ) { document.factory.printing.header = "MeadCo\'s ScriptX Changed This"; document.factory.printing.footer = ""; document.factory.printing.Print(true); } else { alert('You need to install the Print Component!') } }[</pre>] If that doesn't work in your IE version, try this line: [<code class="javascript">] if ( typeof document.factory.printing != "object" ) { [</code>] Jake -codestore
    
    Reply
2. - Dave
  - Thu 11 Apr 2002
  Re: Error message not acceptable...
  This works in ie atleast!
  <script language="VBscript"> function test on error resume next test = IsObject(CreateObject("ScriptX.Factory.1")) end function </script>
  Call on this function from javascript and it will return true if there is a plugin installet
  
  Reply
3. - Jack Ratcliff
  - Fri 12 Apr 2002
  Try this...(Re: Error message not acceptable...)
  Here is a function that we use that does a check first for the object and if it isn't there then does a normal window.print()
  function printReport() {
  if ( !factory.object ) { window.print(); } else { // set page header and footer factory.printing.header = ""; factory.printing.footer = "&d &b www.bluecuda.com &b Page &p of &P"; // setup printer factory.printing.portrait = false; factory.printing.leftMargin = 0.25; factory.printing.topMargin = 0.25; factory.printing.rightMargin = 0.25; factory.printing.bottomMargin = 0.25;
  //print factory.printing.Preview(); }
  }
  Here's an example call to this function from a button:
  <button onClick='printReport();'><img src="/icons/small-printer.gif"> Print</button>
  
  Reply
  
  Show the rest of this thread
  1. - Jake Howlett
    - Fri 12 Apr 2002
    Re: Try this...(Re: Error message not acceptable...)
    An even better solution that truly returns whether or not an object is undefing rather than simply nul is:[<pre class="javascript">] function isUndefined( obj ) { var undef; return obj == undef; }[</pre>] So: if ( isUndefined( factory.object ) ) { etc etc
    Jake -codestore
    
    Reply
- Kim Huynh
- Wed 6 Nov 2002
Print more than 1 page
Jake, I'm wordering if there're a way to print the entire body of the document in frame? My form is a long form, but it's only printed out what it's displayed in a frame. Is there a way to print out the rest of the form?
Thanks, Kim

Reply
- Andrea
- Fri 17 Jan 2003
Customizing Header
Hi... I am trying to print a diffenent header on each page of a report which would include a client name. Can this be done??
For example.. Within a While loop, i want to set a header for each page using JSP like so. factory.printing.header = "<%=clientName%>"; and then print that header to the current page.
It prints the last client in the list on every page. Is there way to getaround this?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks Andrea

Reply
- MK
- Tue 21 Jan 2003
Multiple Cover Pages
I have a page which has multiple frames, each frame holds 1 notes document. When I say window.print()and as "print each frame as separate documents" is selected bye default in IE, each document is printed separtely , but along with it a coverpage is alo printed allthe time . is there any way to avoid printing multiple coverpages.?
Thanks MK

Reply
- Narayana reddy Talakola
- Wed 5 Nov 2003
It is very nice
it helps me alot.

Reply
1. - Charlotte
  - Fri 12 Dec 2003
  Re: It is very nice
  Great indeed.
  However, I can't get the users to download the plugin.
  Maybe it's some I didn't do.
  <object classid="clsid:1663ed61-23eb-11d2-b92f-008048fdd814" id="factory" codebase="<Computed Value>ScriptX.cab#Version=5,60,0,375" style="display:none" viewastext> </object>
  Whereby I put in the Computed Text:
  DBPath + "/$File/"
  Did I miss out anything?
  
  Reply
  
  Show the rest of this thread
  1. - Jake
    - Fri 12 Dec 2003
    Re: It is very nice
    >>Whereby I put in the Computed Text: DBPath + "/$File/"
    Not sure what you've done here Charlotte.
    Have you added the CAB file as an attachment to a document? If so, you need to add the view and document ID before /$file/ in the URL.
    Or have you added the file as a resource to the database? In this case I think it's "$files" that you need to reference.
    HTH Jake
    
    Reply
    1. - Charlotte
      - Mon 15 Dec 2003
      Re: It is very nice
      I've added as a resource in the database. I just place "$files" in the computed text?
      Is $files a field? If so, what are the commands I should place in it?
      
      Reply
      1. Charlotte
        
        Mon 15 Dec 2003
        
        Re: It is very nice
        Found my answer.
        I need to create a computed field called $files with the value $files.
        Thanks for the hint.
        
        Reply
        
        Jake Howlett
        
        Mon 15 Dec 2003
        
        Re: It is very nice
        I'm confused now Charlotte. So, the file is simply a database resource and you've added a field to the form called "$files"? It doesn't add up. Unless you know something I don't...
        Jake
        
        Reply
        
        Charlotte
        
        Wed 17 Dec 2003
        
        Re: It is very nice
        Actually that's not the right way?
        It worked...
        ScriptX.cab is in my image resource as you mentioned in this article. So I thought that by adding a computed field called $files with the default value of $files, I called out ScriptX.cab to the form that I want to control the printing by using codebase="<computed text>ScriptX.cab"
        <Computed text> contains $files (the field that I'm calling from.
        Or I'm doing it the wrong way (that's when I have actual images in my Image Resource). The form may call out the wrong file?
        
        Reply
        
        Jake Howlett
        
        Wed 17 Dec 2003
        
        Re: It is very nice
        Charlotte. I think I see what you're doing now. I think the problem might be that your URLs are relative and can point to the wrong place depending on the state of the form you're in. Try using this method to make sure they always point to the same place:
        http://www.codestore.net/store.nsf/unid/EPSD-52UQZJ
        Or make the URL for the cab "absolute". i.e. Add the whole db path before it /db.nsf/script.cab
        Still not sure about the $files business though. Strange.
        Jake
        
        This reply is already 8 levels deep and so replying at this level is disabled.
        
        Charlotte
        
        Thu 18 Dec 2003
        
        Thanks
        Thanks Jake.
        I think I will be using this quite a lot as my users *love* to print. (To think I implemented this for internal usage)
        Merry Christmas!
  2. - edgardo garganta
    - Wed 4 Oct 2006
    Re: It is very nice
    to download this
    
    Reply
- Dhanji
- Thu 18 Dec 2003
Cannot Install ?
hi j
ur solution impressed me. My User PL doesn't want the Header, Page of Page and the footer URLs while pringting.
at our side the pc are controlled whereby users cannot install any of the plugins/softwares, b'coz they dont have administrator access.
How to handle such a situation?
cheers dhanji

Reply
1. - Dhanji
  - Thu 18 Dec 2003
  Re: Cannot Install - My Email ID
  i missed out the email id in the earlier thread.
  
  Reply
- Greg
- Thu 12 Feb 2004
ScriptX download
This is what I have for my HTML Object Code:
object classid="clsid:1663ed61-23eb-11d2-b92f-008048fdd814" id="factory" codebase="onr/webtec01.nsf/ScriptX.cab" style="display:none" viewastext
But users are not getting prompt to download the file. Is there anything else that I need to do?

Reply
1. - Greg
  - Thu 12 Feb 2004
  Re: ScriptX download
  I think I found my problem but I will not be able to test it until I go to the client site.
  My problem was that I forgot a "/" at the beginning of my codebase url.
  
  Reply
  
  Show the rest of this thread
  1. - pohling
    - Thu 21 Oct 2004
    Re: ScriptX download
    May I know why i get below error? ScriptX version installed: 6.1.432.1 Unable to access printer object - there is a ScriptX configuration error. Error on create: (Error code: -2147467238)
    this is the code. <%@ LANGUAGE="VBScript"%>
     <object id=factory style="display:none" classid="clsid:1663ed61-23eb-11d2-b92f-008048fdd814" codebase="http://www.meadroid.com/scriptx/ScriptX.cab#Version=6,1,432,1"> </object>
    <HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>ScriptX Printing Server Test 1</TITLE></HEAD> <BODY> <H1>Testing ScriptX Printing.</H1> <h3>You are logged in as: [<%= Request.ServerVariables("LOGON_USER")%>] at: <%= Now %></h3> <% Response.Expires = 0 dim factory,p dim a,b,c,d Set factory = server.CreateObject("ScriptX.Factory") on error resume next factory.GetComponentVersion "ScriptX.Factory",a,b,c,d Response.Write("ScriptX version installed: " & a & "." & b & "." & c & "." & d & "<br>") set p = factory.printing if err.Number <> 0 then Response.Write "Unable to access printer object - there is a ScriptX configuration error. Error on create: " & err.description & " (Error code: " & err.Number & ")" else b = p.IsSpooling if err.Number <> 0 then Response.Write "Printing is not licensed: " & err.description & " (Error code: " & err.Number & ")" else Response.Write "Printing is licensed" end if end if set p = nothing factory.ShutDown set factory = nothing %> </BODY> </HTML>
    
    Reply
  2. - Krishna
    - Tue 12 Aug 2008
    Re: ScriptX download
    A very useful control! But is it cross browser compatible? I am facing compatibility issues with safari browser in windows. The print dialogue doesn't turn up. Any known reasons/solutions for this?
    
    Reply
2. - anwarfh
  - Wed 18 Oct 2006
  Re: ScriptX download
  thank you
  
  Reply
- Ashish
- Wed 28 Sep 2005
Its Nice
It is Really Excellent Article.
I really looking for web base printing solution and you explained so well. I realy impressed.

Reply
- Pradeep Chauhan
- Sat 28 Jan 2006
Hide Header & Footer
Hi,
using Java script i want to print a page but dont want Header/footer will get print.
I read above ScriptX. My question is if i will use FREE Version then is it possible that i can give Codebase address of my local server instead of Mead download url. As there are few clients which dont access Internet from their PC.
Regards, Pradeep Chauhan

Reply
1. - Amarpreet
  - Fri 11 May 2007
  Re: Hide Header & Footer
  Hi,
  using Java script i want to print a page but dont want Header/footer will get print.
  its is very usefull for me
  Regards, Amarpreet S. Rajwans
  
  Reply
- Sreejith P S
- Tue 22 May 2007
Its very nice..
Hi, It is very nice quoting ..Its help me lot..
Thanks,
Sreejith P S

Reply
- BlueAngelZion
- Thu 26 Aug 2010
The best code ever!!
I am really impressed.
This code works great. Just be careful with the path that you put on codebase"" this is very important to make the window popup to install the ActiveX-Object.
Thanks

Reply
- Venkat
- Sat 1 Oct 2011
Hello All,
I am trying to print one sample screen form in flex using scriptX . i have downloaded the cap file and installed meadco's scriptX in my system. but am not able to proceed further since i dono how to use that object
("object classid="clsid:1663ed61-23eb-11d2-b92f-008048fdd814" id="factory" codebase="onr/webtec01.nsf/ScriptX.cab" style="display:none" viewastext ") in my flex file.also i dont know where i need to place my smsx.cap file. i am trying to print it from client end itself.
if any of you know the solution means kindly help me to fix this asap. its little urgent

Reply