1. Miguel Leeuwe
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Sunday, 9 January 2022 00:36 AM UTC

The title of this post is wrong. It's not PrintSetup() but Print(true, true) already writing a PDF file (with 0 bytes and not valid):

Hi,

As you might have noticed, on https://community.appeon.com/index.php/qna/q-a/need-for-documentation-on-all-existing-pb-ini-entries there's a discussion about not being able to use the pb.ini setting without any problems:

[DataStore Behavior]
UseHwnd=No

The performance gain is significant, but as indicated by Benjamin Gaesslein, datastore.Print(true, true), will no longer show the PrintSetup where you normally could choose your preferred printer.

So he's got a workaround, which I'm trying to implement in the PFC 2021 classes. Basically you explicitly call PrintSetup() and then do a Print(false, false), when you were really trying to only do a Print(true, true). It works very well when you pick a 'normal' printer.

However, there's a slight problem if you choose a PDF printer. PrintSetup() and choosing MS PDF printer already PRINTS the datastore (not in a valid format) and then after that, when we call Print(false, false), you'll be prompted again for the output pdf filename. (this time that does result in a valid pdf).

Does anyone have an idea or suggestion to solve the situation? Could it be an Appeon bug with PrintSetup() in the first place?

Here's some video material of my tests:

Traditional situation: UseHwnd=Yes (or not in pb.ini) and no Benjamin-hack:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=102Sm2XkoyyJLANbkuXctUpgxIjX2kVvH

My current situation at the job: UseHwnd=No and no Benjamin-hack:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=15wtTuS9h9l8X9VUoSdbbuA9_u55VueWf

After applying Benjamin's Hack (UseHwnd=No):
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=16AmUbIoMWfd1Z-EvlxeymmfX0soXzE6n

To be honest, I think it's a bug of the PrintSetup() function in combination with MS' dialog, which should not show a dialog that prints when all you're asking for is to choose the print  device, but maybe that's due to the Microsoft PDF printer and not Appeon's PrintSetup().

[EDITED]
Hey, that's interesting! With CutePDFWriter, there's no problem at all!!!
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1QiV0o66gP2XwzsvH5scCQ8tZ2YN7K4Ca

NOTE: all the PrintSetup() should be read as "Print(true, true)". I made this mistake because in the PFC event pfc_print() we call of_PrintSetup(), and I assumed wrongly that it would call Printsetup() somewhere.

regards,

MiguelL

Miguel Leeuwe Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 24 February 2022 16:29 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

For anyone interested, I've drilled down to the problem of the "MS Print to PDF" asking twice for the output pdf file name. Not sure if it's anything that can be fixed by Appeon though: https://www.appeon.com/standardsupport/search/view?id=7763

regards.

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Miguel Leeuwe Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Sunday, 9 January 2022 09:59 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

Ok, I've pushed my changes to the pfc 2021 version on Github and created a Pull request. Let's see what Bruce has to say :)

https://github.com/OpenSourcePFCLibraries/2021/pull/3

I've also created a ticket for the help on printing datastores not being fully correct: https://www.appeon.com/standardsupport/search/view?id=7764

regards

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  1. Miguel Leeuwe
  2. Saturday, 22 January 2022 04:01 AM UTC
All done. The changes have been incorporated in the latest version for the pfc 2021. With thanks to Bruce!
  1. Helpful
  1. John Fauss
  2. Saturday, 22 January 2022 19:36 PM UTC
Good work, Miguel! Thank you for doing this.
  1. Helpful
  1. Miguel Leeuwe
  2. Saturday, 22 January 2022 22:54 PM UTC
Yw. with big thanks to Benjamin Gaesslein to be honest.
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