Alpha Five Printer Control

[gagsoft]

Hi all

Is there a XBasic way to send an extermal file to the Alpha Five Printer without opening and viewing it. I want to convert an external log.txt file to a PDF.

Thanks
Peter

[Steve Workings]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

Maybe, but I don't think so.

Check out the help file and the <object>savesas() function. It doesn't handle an external file, but maybe you could pick it up and put it back down as a report.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

I wonder if you could create a report that contains a single memo field, that could be populated by having the script read the log file and write each line to the memo field? If so, maybe the scipt could save the report as PDF ?

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

Is this for a distributed application or for your own use? There are several freeware pdf print drivers. You can use xbasic to

change the default print driver to the pdf driver
sys_print() the external file
change the default print driver back

Not sure if you could distribute the pdf driver as part of your application.

[gagsoft]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

Stan

Thanks for the feedback. I have another PDF printer driver called DocuPrinter which I purchased a while ago. I was wondering if I could control it from within Alpha using XBasic. The following code is a VB example which the vendor says will do the job:- Can this be converted to XBasic?

Sub WordConverter()

Dim docToConvert : docToConvert="c:\test.doc"

Dim DPSDK : Set DPSDK = CreateObject("docuPrinter.SDK")
DPSDK.BackupSettings

DPSDK.DocumentOutputFormat = "PDF"
DPSDK.DocumentOutputName = "demoDOC"
DPSDK.DocumentOutputFolder = "c:\"

DPSDK.HideSaveAsWindow = true
DPSDK.DefaultAction=1

DPSDK.ApplySettings

Dim MSWord : Set MSWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
MSWord.DisplayAlerts = False
On Error Resume Next

Dim NewDoc
Set NewDoc = MSWord.Documents.Open(docToConvert, False, True)
If Err<>0 Then
Set MSWord = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If

Dim MSWordDialog : Set MSWordDialog = MSWord.Dialogs(97)
MSWordDialog.Printer = "docuPrinter"
MSWordDialog.DoNotSetAsSysDefault = 1
MSWordDialog.Execute

NewDoc.PrintOut False

NewDoc.Close False
MSWord.Quit False
Set MSWord = Nothing

Dim RVal : RVal = DPSDK.Create ' Create output document

DPSDK.RestoreSettings
Set DPSDK = Nothing

If (RVal <> 0) Then
MsgBox "Error while converting the document!!!"
Else
MsgBox "Done converting!!!"
End If

End Sub

Thanks
Peter Gagiano

[Scott Axton]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

Hi all

Is there a XBasic way to send an extermal file to the Alpha Five Printer without opening and viewing it. I want to convert an external log.txt file to a PDF.

Thanks
Peter

Peter - I was looking for the same thing and found this topic. Looks promising.

http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...change+printer

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

Had to make a lot of guesses.

Dim docToConvert as C
docToConvert="c:\test.doc"

Dim DPSDK as P
DPSDK = ole.GetObject("docuPrinter.SDK")
DPSDK.BackupSettings()

DPSDK.DocumentOutputFormat = "PDF"
DPSDK.DocumentOutputName = "demoDOC"
DPSDK.DocumentOutputFolder = "c:"+chr(92)

DPSDK.HideSaveAsWindow = .T.
DPSDK.DefaultAction=1

DPSDK.ApplySettings()

Dim MSWord as P
MSWord = ole.GetObject("Word.Application")
MSWord.DisplayAlerts = .F.
On Error Resume Next

Dim NewDoc as P
NewDoc = MSWord.Documents.Open(docToConvert,.F., .T.)
If Err<>0 Then
	MSWORD.Quit()
	Delete MSWORD
Exit Sub
End If

Dim MSWordDialog as P
MSWordDialog = MSWord.Dialogs(97)
MSWordDialog.Printer = "docuPrinter"
MSWordDialog.DoNotSetAsSysDefault = 1
MSWordDialog.Execute()

NewDoc.PrintOut(.F.)
NewDoc.Close(.F.)
MSWord.Quit(.F.)
Delete MSWord

Dim RVal as N
RVal = DPSDK.Create() ' Create output document 

DPSDK.RestoreSettings()
DPSDK.Quit()
Delete DPSDK

If (RVal <> 0) Then 
MsgBox("Error while converting the document!!!")
Else
MsgBox("Done converting!!!")
End If

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

[B]'This function opens a Word document (.doc) and prints it to a [COLOR="Red"]named pdf driver[/COLOR][/B]
FUNCTION Word_print_pdf AS L (docName AS C)
	if .not. file.exists(docname)
		ui_msg_box("Error","Document : "+docname+" does not exist.")
		end
	end if
	Dim wordApp As p
	Dim wordDoc As p
	
	wordApp = ole.Create("Word.Application")
	wordApp.WindowState = 1 'wdWindowStateMaximize
	wordApp.Documents.Open(docname)
	wordApp.ActivePrinter = "[COLOR="red"][B]PDF995[/B][/COLOR]"
    wordApp.Application.printout(.t.,.f.,0,"c:\\"+file.filename_parse(docname,"n")+".pdf")
	WordApp.Quit()
	
	Word_print_pdf = .T.
	
	delete wordDoc
	delete wordApp
	
END FUNCTION

The pdf is saved with the same name as to Word doc but with a .pdf extension and is saved in the root c:\ directory.

[gagsoft]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

Hi Stan

This is really great...just what I was looking for.

Many Thanks

Peter Gagiano

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

Glad to help.

As an improvement/correction to the function it should start

FUNCTION Word_print_pdf AS L (docName AS C)
Word_print_pdf = .F.


Then use it like

if word_print_pdf("c:\somedoc.doc")
     'completed normally
else
     ui_msg_box("Alert","The document "+docname+" did not print to pdf properly.")
end if

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

I should have made it clearer that the the function uses ole to open an instance of word and causes that instance to open the named file. As such it can open any "document/file type" that word can open.

c:\somedoc.doc
c:\somedoc.csv
c:\somedoc.txt

etc.

[MikeC]

Re: Alpha Five Printer Control

Nice Stan,
I noticed a small remnant from your testing likely....the
Dim wordDoc As p

variable is not used.