Save as PDF

[philfeldman]

Has anyone found a workaround for Save Records as PDF in web direct? I know this feature is incompatible with direct scripting and I've been trying to think of a workaround.

 

This feature would be great and is needed to generate any sort of reasonable reports, but I've had not luck scripting a workaround so far. 

 

Help!

[Tommymang]

I'm having the same problem. Anyone found a way to resolve this?

 

Thanks

[Wim Decorte]

The two typical workarounds are:

- use a FMP robot machine on the network to do the PDFing

- use a bit of CWP and any of the existing PHP / .NET / Ruby / ... PDF libraries

[philfeldman]

Wim-

Robot machine? What?  Help!

Phil

[Todd Geist]

A "robot machine" is desktop computer running FileMaker Pro that has been setup to be automatically running scripts, usually at regular intervals.  

 

Since WebDirect can't save as PDF, you need to use one of these robot machines to do it for you.

 

Hope that helps

 

Todd

[slbr549]

360works has a plugin - RemoteScripmaster that can help you with this.

[troutstudio]

I am trying to work out RoboPrint but I can't get past the first stage, because I can't have 2 Filemaker programs sharing files. Is the answer to turn off Filemaker sharing on the server? I'm confused about this.

[dwdata]

It really depends on what type of report you are trying to print. If you want to by-pass the robot machine and are handy with PHP/mySQL, you could the push data to a mySQL DB (via httppost function) and have PHP handle generating the report. Then you can access the PDF report via the Launch URL script step.

I just did this for a client who ran into that limitation with WebDirect and opted not to go the  robot route. It is was a little more coding, but end result was quite acceptable.  In my case, the client wanted an email generated to to access the report later. If you do not need to save the PDF for later, you can do it all with PHP.

My 2 cents...

Edited July 28, 2015 by dwdata

[xochi]

Robot "machine" is also misleading, in that it's perfectly fine to have the robot user be another account on the same machine as the server - we've been doing this with great results for years on our OS X servers.    We set up the robot user to have very limited permissions, so it can't do any harm to the administrator account that is in control.     YMMV of course, but it's a technique that's worth a consideration if you only have one machine.

 

[BrentHedden]

I can vouch for the 360Works RemoteScripter plugin.  This is how I'm creating PDFs - using a robot user/machine/whatever that is sitting there, waiting for a remote call to spring into action. The WD page just has to pass some parameters to the remote (record #, layout, etc), which isn't much different than setting up the Perform Script On Server feature.  It doesn't matter if the client is running on the server machine or a separate one.  I've got a virtual environment, so spawning a separate slice/client just for this purpose was no problems.

As other has stated already, there are several libraries available for PHP and other web languages that can handle this as well.  These solutions are more elegant, but out of the reach/budget of some.  If you've got the available time, I highly recommend learning how to do this.  

[JerrySalem]

A solution that worked out great for me is using the MonkeyBreadSoftware Plugin along with DynaPDF library.

You run a script on the server (as a PSOS), that script calls the plugin along with the library.  You build the PDF separately from a layout.  It isn't nearly as easy as 'SaveRecordsAsPDF', but the examples are pretty straightforward.

 

Jerry

[GisMo]

Have the Server save The PDF and Email it to you or have the server save PDF file in a dropbox folder or network shared folder. No plugins necessary

[JerrySalem]

GisMo

 

The Save as PDF script step is not server compatible.  Thats the issue.  

 

Jerry

[jbante]

You could just generate the base 64 for the PDF you want and stick it in a container with Base64Decode.

[JerrySalem]

jbante,

The OP is using WebDirect.  You can't generate a PDF via WebDirect and then base64 it into a container.

Jerry

[jbante]

Jerry, you misunderstand my suggestion. I'm suggesting converting base 64 to PDF, not converting a PDF to base 64. The base 64 comes before the PDF. The base 64 text would be generated by scripting and calculations, not by conversion from a source PDF using the Base64Encode function (at least not directly; there could be a template PDF to decode, but that's optional).

Edited November 17, 2015 by jbante

[GisMo]

16 hours ago, jbante said:

Jerry, you misunderstand my suggestion. I'm suggesting converting base 64 to PDF, not converting a PDF to base 64. The base 64 comes before the PDF. The base 64 text would be generated by scripting and calculations, not by conversion from a source PDF using the Base64Encode function (at least not directly; there could be a template PDF to decode, but that's optional).

Sounds like a fun project...

[surgite71]

On 11/4/2015 at 6:38 PM, xochi said:

Robot "machine" is also misleading, in that it's perfectly fine to have the robot user be another account on the same machine as the server - we've been doing this with great results for years on our OS X servers.    We set up the robot user to have very limited permissions, so it can't do any harm to the administrator account that is in control.     YMMV of course, but it's a technique that's worth a consideration if you only have one machine.

 

Xochi...I would be in your boat. I am having the database I'm working on for a client hosted by DataTrium, so it's not my hardware and I don't have a second machine to dedicate to the "robot".  Assuming this is a scenario similar to what you'd mentioned here? Thanks! Joshua

[xochi]

1 hour ago, surgite71 said:

Xochi...I would be in your boat. I am having the database I'm working on for a client hosted by DataTrium, so it's not my hardware and I don't have a second machine to dedicate to the "robot".  Assuming this is a scenario similar to what you'd mentioned here? Thanks! Joshua

 

That probably depends on their specific policies.

 

One should note that FileMaker Server 16 can now generate PDF files, so one could probably do this in WebDirect using the "Perform Script on Server" command, and avoid needing a second "robot" user altogether.

[surgite71]

On 7/28/2015 at 10:41 AM, dwdata said:

It really depends on what type of report you are trying to print. If you want to by-pass the robot machine and are handy with PHP/mySQL, you could the push data to a mySQL DB (via httppost function) and have PHP handle generating the report. Then you can access the PDF report via the Launch URL script step.

I just did this for a client who ran into that limitation with WebDirect and opted not to go the  robot route. It is was a little more coding, but end result was quite acceptable.  In my case, the client wanted an email generated to to access the report later. If you do not need to save the PDF for later, you can do it all with PHP.

My 2 cents...

dwdata...

I may need to explore this route however haven't worked much with PHP. Due to hosting costs, I can't move the database I'm developing from FM14 to 16...the hosting/server pricing costs have increased so dramatically, my client will never pay those monthly fees. As such, I'm stuck with FM14 as they're accessing the database via WebDirect only...unless I can find a way to snag a licensed version of FM14 for Windows that I can install on one of their machines, however that seems unlikely.

Do you have a page on your website the would give me some more direction on this PHP/mySQL route you discussed?

Thanks! 

Joshua

[surgite71]

On 6/15/2017 at 9:20 AM, xochi said:

 

That probably depends on their specific policies.

 

One should note that FileMaker Server 16 can now generate PDF files, so one could probably do this in WebDirect using the "Perform Script on Server" command, and avoid needing a second "robot" user altogether.

xochi...thanks!

FM16 definitely can do this natively now...however the hosting fees associated in my case (10 users accessing only via WebDirect) in FM16 is astronomical for my client...and I can't afford my own server license.

I spoke with my new hosting provider (FMPHost) and they said it's fine by them having a "robot user"...they have clients do it all the time in FM14.

Given the increased hosting fees...and plugin options...I think this is the route I need to go...seem correct?