Print Formatted and HTML Text Using a Browser

 

Compatibilities: Required Xtras: Buddy API

This item has not yet been rated

How can I print formatted text without PrintOMatic?

Whenever the discussion moves towards printing cast members with text in html format, PrintOMatic gets suggested as the print engine. However, I avoid this method and easily create formatted html files which print silently, using BuddiApi. Perhaps this is old news to a majority of lingoists, but the process is effective if you haven't seen it yet. In my commercial applications, I need to create and print spreadsheet-like reports. While there are many ways to set this up, I typically display and print columnar text from a number of side-by-side fields, scrolled as a group with scripted bitmap scroll bars. I generally use netLingo to query a remote mysql database, return the data as vertical bar delimited text--using a simple php script to pull the data from the mysql server--and place each database field into the on-screen field members. With FileIO and BuddiApi methods, I then read the field rows in a repeat loop and generate a temporary file, which is then printed by the computer-resident browser (almost any browser), without even displaying the browser on screen, rather then with PrintOMatic. The file is created on the fly to reflect the query results, is overwritten silently for subsequent print files, and is automatically deleted when the movie quits. In the following example script, I use eight fields as columns to display the quasi-spreadsheet on screen. However, a single field/text member could as easily used to hold the results—or to format any rich text for printing—and the script could then be revised to loop on the "item" rather than field. If you simply want to print the formatted text of one or more text members, the script can be rewritten to just write the html of the member to the print file. This routine runs very fast, and can produce a 50 page report in mini-seconds. However, BuddiApi is required to Open, Print, and Delete the html file, and FileIO is used to write the temporary print file. on mouseUp   -- if you need to save a permanent file, hold down the ctrl key   if the commandDown then     tCd=1   end if   --create a temporary or permanent print file   set tExportFile = new(xtra "FileIO")   if tCd=1 then     tFilePath = displaySave(tExportFile,"Save data to...","Report.html")   else     tFilePath=the moviePath&"Prnttemp.html"   end if   if tFilePath = "" then     set tExportFile = 0     exit   else     -- standard FileIO stuff...     createFile(tExportFile,tFilePath)     set tErr = status(tExportFile)     if tErr = -122 then       openfile(tExportFile,tFilePath,2)       delete(tExportFile)       createFile(tExportFile,tFilePath)     end if     openfile(tExportFile,tFilePath,2)          -- prepare report data     tNumRows=the number of lines of field "RptFld1" -- the first "spreadsheet" field          -- store all the heading stuff first     put "<" & "!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC"&RETURN into tConvertToTable     put QUOTE&"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN""E&RETURN after tConvertToTable     put QUOTE&"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd""E&">"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "<" & "html>"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "<" & "head>"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "<" & "title>Converted data<" & "/title>"&Return after tConvertToTable          -- create an internal cascading style sheet for the html elements     put "<" & "style type=""E&"text/css""E&">"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "p {font-family: ""E&"Arial""E&"; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%}"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "td {font-family: ""E&"Arial""E&"; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%; border-bottom:1pt solid #ECECEC}"&Return after tConvertToTable     --if you have IE6 or a browser that recognizes dotted borders, use this instead...     --put "td {font-family: ""E&"Arial""E&"; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%; border-bottom:1pt dotted black}"&Return after tConvertToTable          --the next style includes a "page break", and is placed at the bottom of each page     put "h1 {font-family: ""E&"Arial""E&"; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; page-break-after: always}"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "<" & "/style>"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "<" & "/head>"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "<" & "body bgcolor=""E&"#ffffff""E&">"&Return after tConvertToTable          -- set up bold headers to repeat on each page     tHeaders=EMPTY     put "<" & "tr>"&RETURN after tHeaders     tHoldHeader=EMPTY     repeat with x=1 to 8       tLabelName=line 1 of field ("RptFld"&x)       put "<" & "td width=104pt align=left><" & "b>"&(tLabelName)&"<" & "/b><" & "/td>" after tHeaders       delete line 1 of field ("RptFld"&x)     end repeat     put RETURN after tHeaders     put "<" & "/tr>"&RETURN after tHeaders          --set up variables for the number of rows per page and number of pages to print     tHowManyPages=tNumRows/52     tLastTime=tNumRows mod 52          -- write row data to holding variable     if tHowManyPages=0 then --less than 52 rows, or 1 page       -- add the report title, copied from a user field       put "<" & "p><" & "b>"&(member("rpttitle").text)&"<" & "/b><" & "/p>" after tConvertToTable       put "<" & "table>"&RETURN after tConvertToTable       put tHeaders after tConvertToTable       repeat with x=2 to tNumRows         tRowHtml=EMPTY         put "<" & "tr>"&RETURN into tRowHtml         repeat with z=1 to 8           tColName="RptFld"&z           tHoldText=line x of field tColName           if tHoldText=EMPTY then             --write non-breaking space for empty cell             tHoldText=" "           end if           put "<" & "td width=104pt align=left>"&tHoldText&"<" & "/td>" after tRowHtml         end repeat         put RETURN after tRowHtml         put "<" & "/tr>"&RETURN after tRowHtml         put tRowHtml after tConvertToTable       end repeat     else -- if more than 1 page, do this instead       tStart=1       tEnd=52       repeat with t=1 to tHowManyPages         put "<" & "p><" & "b>"&(member("rpttitle").text)&":  Page "&t&"<" & "/b><" & "/p>" after tConvertToTable         put "<" & "table>"&RETURN after tConvertToTable         put tHeaders after tConvertToTable         repeat with x=tStart to tEnd           tRowHtml=EMPTY           put "<" & "tr>"&RETURN into tRowHtml           repeat with z=1 to 8             tColName="RptFld"&z             tHoldText=line x of field tColName             if tHoldText=EMPTY then               tHoldText=" "             end if             put "<" & "td width=104pt align=left>"&tHoldText&"<" & "/td>" after tRowHtml           end repeat           put RETURN after tRowHtml           put "<" & "/tr>"&RETURN after tRowHtml           put tRowHtml after tConvertToTable         end repeat         tStart=tStart+52         tEnd=tEnd+52         put "<" & "/table>"&RETURN after tConvertToTable         -- add an element containing a page break--see the style sheet above         put "<" & "h1> <" & "/h1>"&RETURN after tConvertToTable       end repeat       -- if a part page is left over       if tLastTime>0 then         put "<" & "p><" & "b>"&(member("rpttitle").text)&":  Page "&t&"<" & "/b><" & "/p>" after tConvertToTable         put "<" & "table>"&RETURN after tConvertToTable         put tHeaders after tConvertToTable         repeat with x=tStart to tEnd           tRowHtml=EMPTY           put "<" & "tr>"&RETURN into tRowHtml           repeat with z=1 to 8             tColName="RptFld"&z             tHoldText=line x of field tColName             if tHoldText=EMPTY then               tHoldText=" "             end if             put "<" & "td width=104pt align=left>"&tHoldText&"<" & "/td>" after tRowHtml           end repeat           put RETURN after tRowHtml           put "<" & "/tr>"&RETURN after tRowHtml           put tRowHtml after tConvertToTable         end repeat       end if       put "<" & "/table>"&Return after tConvertToTable       put "<" & "table>"&RETURN after tConvertToTable     end if          -- add the html ending tags     put "<" & "/table>"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "<" & "/body>"&Return after tConvertToTable     put "<" & "/html>"&Return after tConvertToTable     -- write the assembled html to a file     writeString(tExportFile,tConvertToTable)     closeFile(tExportFile)     set tExportFile = 0     set tConvertToTable=EMPTY     -- if the command key was down, open the file, else just print the file     if tCd=1 then       tCheck=baOpenFile(tFilePath,"Normal")     else       tCheck=baPrintFile(tFilePath)     end if     if tCheck<" & "32 then       alert "There is a problem opening the application."     end if   end if end To remove the temporary print file from the user computer add something like this to your "Quit" routine… on Quit_Movie   -- delete temporary print file if it exists   tFilePath=the moviePath&"Prnttemp.html"   baDeleteFile(tFilePath)   quit end And if you just need to print a text member, use this instead of the repeat loop... on mouseUp   --create a temporary print file   set tExportFile = new(xtra "FileIO")   tFilePath=the moviePath&"Prnttemp.html"   -- standard FileIO stuff...   createFile(tExportFile,tFilePath)   set tErr = status(tExportFile)   if tErr = -122 then     openfile(tExportFile,tFilePath,2)     delete(tExportFile)     createFile(tExportFile,tFilePath)   end if   openfile(tExportFile,tFilePath,2)   -- store the heading stuff first to be html conforming!   put "<" & "!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC"&RETURN into tConvertToFile   put QUOTE&"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN""E&RETURN after tConvertToFile   put QUOTE&"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd""E&">"&Return after tConvertToFile   -- include the html of the formatted text member   put member("my_html_text_member").html after tConvertToFile   -- write the assembled html to a file   writeString(tExportFile,tConvertToFile)   closeFile(tExportFile)   set tExportFile = 0   set tConvertToTable=EMPTY   tCheck=baPrintFile(tFilePath)   if tCheck<" & "32 then     alert "There is a problem printing the file."   end if end Using routines like the above scripts, any text/field members can easily be printed. And, I can quickly design complex page layouts with exact positioning; specific fonts; complete border, spacing, and color control, with just a bit of research on Cascading Style Sheets and some thought to html tables, which are then embedded in the script. In Fact, anything that can be viewed in a browser can be designed into your script, with much more speed and  ease that programming with PrintOMatic. Saul Krimsly Intelligent Solutionz, Inc. saul@itsolutionz.com