[Need] Large Printer Spool Workaround

[brianj774]

Hi guys,

So, I've now bumped into the infamous printing issue (where the images sent to the printer are utterly massive. See here and here for additional threads).

I understand that this is not something that Stimulsoft has much control over (though low quality and vector formatting should help greatly, if they are ever implemented), but I have urgent need of a workaround.

Here's my particular use case:

We are using the Reports.Fx software to generate a receipt, at the conclusion of a credit card swipe, during a walk up school registration. We've got queues of parents standing in line, waiting to take their turn. In many instances (the variables being printer hardware, and network/usb connections), printing can take anywhere from 45 seconds to as much as 3 minutes!!!

Obviously, to my consumers, such a delay is unacceptable. As such, I must find a workaround. I understand that I can have them save the report as a pdf, and then have them print from there, but, that is an undesirable and unprofessional solution. In a perfect word, there would be a way to save the pdf to disk automatically, and to automatically print the document.

I need some ideas.

Please help....

[Andrew]

Hello,

Unfortunately, this problem is two-sided. We conducted experiments on the vector printing but it led to other problems:

To print all the elements as vector, you need to use Flash vector elements on the page for each report item - text boxes, lines, rectangles, etc. If there are lot of elements on the page (the average about 500 items on each page for not a complicated report), then, adding them to the canvas goes slow, sometimes it can take 3 seconds to create a page. For 10 pages it is already 30 seconds. The second problem is that vector printing does not support halftones. The third problem is that sometimes overlay of elements works incorrectly and because of this overlay can occur when printing a report item. At this moment we have suspended the task of implementation of vector printing, but plan to return to it in the future.

About saving to PDF. In the Flash Player security settings do not allow to automatically save a file to the disk, as well as running files. This feature is only available in AIR applications. Using a Web browser it cannot be done.


Thank you.

[brianj774]

Hmm...that is VERY discouraging. I'm at a loss as to what to do then. My customers are telling me that this printing is unacceptable. If there is nothing to do programmatically, and there are no workarounds possible, then the only option I appear to have left is to find an entirely new solution.

Obviously, I've invested a lot of time into this toolset. That is NOT the direction I wish to go. Is there no other path?

[brianj774]

Ok, it appears that the "Reports.web" version doesn't have the same issues (I gather, because its using html to render out the reports, instead of flash). the "SimpleList" demo, tested from both the flex and web demos, print in 51 and 6 seconds, respectively.

So, I am hoping to be able to leverage some of the work I've already done with Reports.Fx with Reports.web.

Do you see any difficulties with this approach?

Can you provide any assistance in helping me make the transition?

In particular, I'm hoping to basically create a simple one-off "reports.aspx" page, which would take the report definition and data that I've already assembled, and pass it over to the aspx page, hosted in an iframe. Sound good? Pitfalls?

Any other thoughts?

Thanks

[Vladimir]

Hello,

All report templates (MRT files) created in Reports.Fx must be compatible with Reports.Web

Known nuances that may arise in the transition from Reports.Fx to Reports.Web:
1. The size of the report will be limited to 300...400 pages. Further increase of size will result in requirement of a large amount of memory on the server.
2. Print in HTML mode does not allow printing complex reports that require strict positioning of elements and uses multi-level overlay elements.
3. Reports.Web product is more functional and complete, than Reports.Fx.

Thank you.

[brianj774]

I'm wondering.

1- Is it possible to completely generate a report (behind the scenes, without the user seeing it), save the report, and then have an asp.net version which consumes the saved report document? I am guessing not, for the same reasons it is not possible to save directly to pdf and print...

2- Is an fx based HTML-print-mode possible, via any mechanism? Obviously, my best path forward is to use the code I've already got in place. If there were just some other method of displaying the report or getting it to the printer, I'd be perfectly happy (even if I had to jump thorugh hoops to get it done).

Thanks

[brianj774]

Finally, I'm wondering if I can do this:

use Reports.Fx, and all the code I've already got in place to generate the report, then, with

Code: Select all

report.Render();
var rtpstr:String = report.SaveDocumentToString();

save the document for consumption...then, later on, transition the user to an ASPX page (in an iframe in a modular panel popup), get the information for the document (somehow), and then render it in html on Reports.Web side of things with:

Code: Select all

StiReport report = new StiReport();
report.LoadDocumentFromString(str);
report.Show();

What do you think?

[Vladimir]

Hello,

1- Is it possible to completely generate a report (behind the scenes, without the user seeing it), save the report, and then have an asp.net version which consumes the saved report document? I am guessing not, for the same reasons it is not possible to save directly to pdf and print...

Yes, you can save rendered report to the MDC format and then view it

2- Is an fx based HTML-print-mode possible, via any mechanism? Obviously, my best path forward is to use the code I've already got in place. If there were just some other method of displaying the report or getting it to the printer, I'd be perfectly happy (even if I had to jump thorugh hoops to get it done).

Currently we are developing export a report to HTML in Reports.Fx, and then will be available print as HTML in Reports.Fx products.

Finally, I'm wondering if I can do this:

Yes, it is possible. Only the viewing report code is slightly different:

Code: Select all

StiReport report = new StiReport();
report.LoadDocumentFromString(str);
StiWebViewer1.Report = report;

Thank you.

[brianj774]

2- Is an fx based HTML-print-mode possible, via any mechanism? Obviously, my best path forward is to use the code I've already got in place. If there were just some other method of displaying the report or getting it to the printer, I'd be perfectly happy (even if I had to jump thorugh hoops to get it done).

Currently we are developing export a report to HTML in Reports.Fx, and then will be available print as HTML in Reports.Fx products.

Any estimate on when this will be done? This could save me quite a bit of re-work, if it was coming out 'soon' ...

Thanks

[Vladimir]

Hello,

The term of realization of HTML export is approximately the end of September - early October.

Thank you.