This will only work with some browsers: The problem I had (I can't remember if it was with IE 6 or Moz, but I think it was Moz) was that the print function would return immediately and the close function would then close the window before the window actually printed (the print dialog never displayed). It ended up that I didn't need to start the print automatically so I removed it from the code but I think I had it working.. My first solution was to use a timer to call a function to close the window. I seem to recall that I may have used two timers. The first timer gave the print dialog a chance to grab the thread. Once the thread returned the attached function would be called and would start the second timer. This timer gave the browser time to get the actual print process started. Finally the second function would close the window. I can't remember if this was exactly what I found and what other problems I may (or may not) have had. The timers were not very long, less than 1000ms.
Another solution I recall (however it won't help you with your PDF) was to make the called window responsible for printing and closing itself on the onLoad. (I found some old code that did this on the page I was wanting to autoprint.) I guess the race condition didn't exist here. I just don't remember.
FYI: All these methods will cause a new window to appear for a few seconds and then disappear. This can startle the user. I used the width and height attributes on the open function to make this window as small as possible but it will still be visible.
I just had a wild idea. Would this work???? It would get rid of the new window problem (I have NOT tested any of the following. No clue if it actually works!)
Create a hidden IFRAME anywhere on the page:
<div style="display:hidden; "><iframe name="hiddenframe"></div>
<!-- found (the hard way) some browsers (IE) won't hide IFRAME directly, therefore surround with <DIV> -->
<script language="Javascript">
function doPrint(printpage) {
document.frames.hiddenframe.location.href = printpage
// I think I read somewhere this (in the next statement),or something like it, will wait until the page is loaded.
// Other concern would be if you printed the same page twice. Would the href need to be cleared manually?
// Of course if you knew what page would print at the creation of this page on the server you could just put it in the IFRAME
// tag above and skip everything here except the actual print statement below.
while (document.frames.hiddenframe.location.href != printpage) {
// should put in some code to time this out if page never loads
}
document.frames.hiddenframe.print()
// could have race condition here, it could put the IFRAME state back before the print takes place
window.back() // put the history list current page pointer back since it was modified when the IFRAME was dynamically loaded
}
</script>
Would that just print what's in the IFRAME???? If you try this please post results back to the list.
This won't work with NS4 (it doesn't support IFRAME). Maybe could try using frames and make one frame real small. Access this frame from another like:
parent.frames.smallframe.print()
Of course this introduces some potential problems caused by frames
1: FRAME (but not IFRAME) shows the URL of the frame page, not the displayed page, in the address bar (as user moves from page to page the URL in the address bar doesn't change.
2:: if you dynamically load the page using Javascript then the browser history list is updated. Can cause unexpected results (appears that button didn't work) when the user uses the back and forward buttons.
All right, somebody hit me. I just don't know when to shut up.
Dale Frye
Antonio Gallardo wrote:
I mean on the cliente. I was ”researching” and found a solution using
javascript:
newwindow.open()
newwindow.print()
newwindow.close()
This are not the exactly commands, but it can work. I will try it. But if
you know another solution, please let me know. :-)
Best Regards,
Antonio Gallardo
Geoff Howard dijo:
Do you mean a printer on the client, or the server?
-----Original Message-----
From: Antonio Gallardo [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2003 2:55 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Send directly to printer....?
Hi,
Is there a way to send a document directly to printer?
I am using XSL-FO and serializing to PDF. But now I need to send a
document directly to printer without presenting it first in the client
browser first. Is there a way to do that?
Thanks in advance.
Antonio Gallardo.
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