Navision-Reports to PDF

Stefan_Limpert · 2000-07-28

I'm searching for a tool that converts Navision-Reports in PDF-Files. It must run under Navision. Have anybody Solutions to this Problem? <img border="0" title="" alt="" src="images/smiles/icon_confused.gif" />

Thanks Stefan

Andreas_Lundin · 2000-07-28

Hi Stefan

What do you mean by a tool running under Windows? Do you mean an OCX or similar?

I have seen this discussion about converting reports into PDF output, so if you look in the archive of this site and also at www.navision.net, you should be able to get some ideas.

As I remember it, someone mentioned something about directing the report output to a virtual printer driver converting the output into a PDF output. It was a commercial product, and therefor not for free of course. I think it's difficult to find any free tools doing this conversion.

I have made a small tool doing the conversion of text files into PDF(look at the download section), but of course you need to af tool to print the report directly into a PDF output format.

Just to give you some ideas.

Andreas L.

John_Tegelaar · 2000-07-29

Andreas refers to my post. We have used the PDF printerdriver from Amyuni Consultants France successfully several times. Look at www.amyuni.com for a free trial. The driver costs only some USD 130 (single user license), so that could hardly be an objection :-)

John

[This message has been edited by John Tegelaar (edited 28-07-2000).]

Lars_Westman · 2000-07-31

Hi John.

Can You control the name of the pdf from Navision so You can create pdf files without the user having to type the filename?

//Lars Westman

John_Tegelaar · 2000-08-01

Lars,

Yes, you can. The driver comes with a DLL file (CDintf.dll for Common Driver interface) which you can install as Automation server (not as Control, as you might expect from the name) and which allows you to set papersize, filename, orientation etc. from within Navision.

To illustrate this: we build a system, for a worldwide operating company in the oil-business, that generates an "approval sheet" from web-input orders, creates an PDF, and sends this an e-mail (PDF as attachment) to the financial centers around the world. All fully automatic. There's quite a bit more involved in the system there, but it should give you an idea of the level of automation you can reach.

John

Stefan_Limpert · 2000-08-01

Hi John,
that was a good Tip. The Product of amyuni is exactly what i need. What license should i buy for using it in my Navision Projects. Do i need the developer Version or is the single User license enough. I need it for the work similar as your projects( automatically create and attached to e-Mails)
Regards Stefan

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by John Tegelaar:
Andreas refers to my post. We have used the PDF printerdriver from Amyuni Consultants France successfully several times. Look at www.amyuni.com for a free trial. The driver costs only some USD 130 (single user license), so that could hardly be an objection :-)

John

[This message has been edited by John Tegelaar (edited 28-07-2000).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Stefan_Limpert · 2000-08-02

Hi Andi,
yes i want a tool like an OCX or similar. The tool to convert text to pdf is not bad, but only the half way. Nevertheless thanx for your support.
Stefan
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Andreas Lundin:
Hi Stefan

What do you mean by a tool running under Windows? Do you mean an OCX or similar?

I have seen this discussion about converting reports into PDF output, so if you look in the archive of this site and also at www.navision.net, you should be able to get some ideas.

As I remember it, someone mentioned something about directing the report output to a virtual printer driver converting the output into a PDF output. It was a commercial product, and therefor not for free of course. I think it's difficult to find any free tools doing this conversion.

I have made a small tool doing the conversion of text files into PDF(look at the download section), but of course you need to af tool to print the report directly into a PDF output format.

Just to give you some ideas.

Andreas L.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

horrigan · 2000-08-02

>The driver costs only some USD 130 (single user
>license), so that could hardly be an objection :-)

$130 could be an objection where I work. We are going to be doing a similar project for a client who doesn't have all that money--- and the CFO for our client is my boss's little brother. My boss's brother is not quite as cheap as my boss, but I suspect that he too will go to great lengths to avoid spending $130 :-)

Maybe this is a good opportunity to ask for advice (technical, not financial) about the project. The client (whose CFO is my boss's little brother, as I mentioned) wants certain managers to have access to certain reports without having access to Navision itself. They don't wnat to buy more Navision seats partially because of the cost, partially because of security issues, and partially for organizational reasons (i.e., the CFO wants to make sure that he and only he has all the facts about financial stuff.) For some reason which my boss explained to me but which I didn't understand, his brother does NOT wnat to simply place HTML files on the office intranet. (The explanation began "HTML files are no good because they are editable..." and got murkier from there.) Anyway, does anyone have any advice on how to create PDF files from Navision reports?

The client is a regional nonprofit social-service agency in New Hampshire, which is in the USA.

Thanks!

Tim Horrigan <Tim.Horrigan@emsolution.com>

Tim Horrigan, NCSD
<Tim.Horrigan@emsolution.com>

John_Tegelaar · 2000-08-03

Stefan,
We have single user version licenses for our customers. One customer (that oil-business company) wants to have licenses for each and every piece of software (as it should be!) and took a license for each and every workstation in the office. Another customer just took one Win 95/98 and one NT license. The NT version is quite suitable to be installed as a network printer, you know... <grin>

Tim,
Your boss seems to be weak on math. What's the expression in English again... penny wise, pound foolish? How much time do you think it will cost to develop a PDF driver yourself? And what's the hourrate charged? Do you get the point?

But let's do a little creative thinking here... So the aim is to make webpages that can't be changed by the user. Would it be sufficient to separate the displayed pages and the content? Then I would say: 1) Output the content of the report in a file on the (web)server as text and/or numbers (dataport? own routine?), then 2) use a linked JavaScript or VBScript scriptfile to create a HTML page from the report file. Your users will see a page they can't change (as the displayed page is created on the fly), they can't change the Script file (as this is stored on the webserver and called by the link in the webpage) and they can't change the content (as this comes from a file they have no access to). Just a thought.

John

mfabian · 2000-08-03

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by John Tegelaar:
Output the content of the report in a file on the (web)server as text and/or numbers<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In an earlier project I even went one step further: The customer wanted to send html-order forms directly to thir customers. Personalized order-forms as they only should cointain Items the customer had ordered within the last x days.
My navision customer is a fruit-vegetable vendor and his customers (the stores) usually order more or less the same products on a daily basis.
Well, as you know, html-files are simple textfiles and can therefore easily be created by a navision report. Simply open a text-file at the beginning, and write html-code to the file rather than printing it.
Using this technique, I directly create the order-form in html (containing javascript routines and the usual submit-button) which is then automaitcally sent to the customer via e-mail.
The customer (store) just has to fill out the html-form, press the submit-button and the answer is sent back to the grocerer.
The next step is to automatically read the inbox and create Sales orders out of the e-mail messages which contain the contents of the order-form as attachment.

It's a little bit tricky and requires some knowledge of MAPI, html and javascript but it works very fine and the grocerer is happy as it saved him from employing one more sales-person.

Marcus Fabian
m.fabian@thenet.ch
+41 79 439 78 72

Andreas_Lundin · 2000-08-03

Hi all you PDF/HTML guyz <img border="0" title="" alt="" src="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif" />

I have some comments on this PDF subject:

1. If you think of a commercial PDF printer driver or conversion tool is to expensive, there is an alternative. The solution is to use a piece of software licensed under the GNU GPL license, which means that the use of the software is free of charge.

I have been using a tool for my private use for some time now, and it's almost perfect. The name is HTMLDOC, and it can convert HTML input files into PostScript and PDF files. It has a GUI interface, but it is also possible to run the tool from a command line.

So, if you want a low-cost/free solution for converting Navision reports or similar into PDF, this should be your choice. The workflow would be:

- Generate your Navision report, and save the output as HTML
- Invoke the HTMLDOC command line option using the SHELL command and pass the proper parameters to the HTMLDOC tool, and it in most cases genereates a perfect output.

I have tested the HTMLDOC on 10 different reports, and the output seemed to work perfectly in 8 of these. In the remaining two reports, som HTML tag codes were printed along with the output. I have been looking at the HTML codes in the report, and sometimes the Navision HTML output option seems create small syntax errors. Not much, but they happen.

But all in all, the quality seems to be acceptable.

The HTMLDOC can be obtained at:
http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc/

This is just an idea, if you can need a free tool.

Regards
Andreas L.

Andreas_Lundin · 2000-08-03

Hi again

Just a comment on the HTMLDOC tool. The source code is available as GNU GPL licensed source code. So, it should be possible to make an OCX version of the HTMLDOC.

In that way, you avoid using the SHELL command in Navision, and may pass the parameters to the OCX instead.

So, I have started on creating an OCX version, and upload it, when and if I get it to work <img border="0" title="" alt="" src="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif" />

Regards
Andreas L.

horrigan · 2000-08-03

The web site www.easysw.com was inaccessible to me when I tried to access it today (Thursday 03 August 2000 around 1430 UTC)?

Tim Horrigan, NCSD
<Tim.Horrigan@emsolution.com>

Andreas_Lundin · 2000-08-04

Hi again

I have tried the weblink both at work and at home, and it works just fine.
http://www.easysw.com/

If you have any trouble accessing the page, I could E-mail the application to you(approx. 2 MB).

Just drop a note on this forum.

You could try to access the download section at
http://www.easysw.com/software.html

Just a hint.

Regards
Andreas L.

Andreas_Lundin · 2000-08-07

Hi again

Did you manage to download the HTMLDOC tool?

Regards
Andeas Lundin

horrigan · 2000-08-07

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Andreas Lundin:
Hi again

Did you manage to download the HTMLDOC tool?

Regards
Andeas Lundin<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for asking. I did download it.

Now I just need to figure out how to use the Automation server to set the file names.

I may have to forget about the Amyuni PDF printer driver and use HTMLDOC instead. Or, I may even have to figure out how to send data directly to Adobe Acrobat's automation server.

--Tim Horrigan <Tim.Horrigan@emsolution.com>

horrigan · 2000-08-09

The Adobe Acrobat 4.0 software package has a PDF printer driver in it. I am talking about the version you pay $$$ for (or Euros, or whatever, for)--- not the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. I have a copy of it--- but not for long because we're just using our customer's copy instead of paying for our own copy.

I don't know how well Adobe's PDF driver works yet--- nor do I know if there are any OCXs or Automation servers which you can use with it to set the output file name, etc.

--Tim Horrigan <Tim.Horrigan@emsolution.com>

Tim Horrigan, NCSD
<Tim.Horrigan@emsolution.com>

horrigan · 2000-08-22

I have completed the project which required turning reports into PDFs.

I ended up using the HTMLDOC software. It appears that HTMLDOC has trouble when you feed it HTML code representing blank text boxes--- or text boxes with leading spaces which contain nonnumeric data. These text boxes cause ugly results--- but you can circumvent it by modifying the reports so they never produce a blank text box.

My client wanted to use the Account Schedule report to create his PDFs. The Account Schedule report is the most complicated "shrinkwrapped" report in the whole Navision package. The fix was to find the code which fills the unused textboxes with blanks--- and have it fill the unused textboxes with a dot (Windows Character 183 = '·') instead.

Tim Horrigan, NCSD
<Tim.Horrigan@emsolution.com>

mfabian · 2000-09-07

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by horrigan:
The Adobe Acrobat 4.0 software package has a PDF printer driver in it. I am talking about the version you pay $$$ for (or Euros, or whatever, for<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Accrobat Destiller (that's the name of the utility you mention) is the official product recommended by Navision for creating PDF files. The price is around EUR 300.-.

Marcus Fabian
m.fabian@thenet.ch
+41 79 439 78 72

horrigan · 2000-09-08

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by fabian:
Accrobat Destiller (that's the name of the utility you mention) is the official product recommended by Navision for creating PDF files. The price is around EUR 300.-.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Distiller works great--- however, it wasn't the best choice for this particular customer. Reason #1: I was unable to find an easy way to automate the choice of an output filespec-- that is, the user has to go through the Windows Save As dialog rigamarole to save the output file. I assume there is some way to do this using Automation servers or ODBC, but I couldn't make it work. Reason #2: our customer did NOT buy a site license for Acrobat. They merely bought a single copy of Acrobat at our local Staples store. (Staples, for those of you outside the US, is a ubiquitous American chain of office-supply stores.) This means that Distiller would only work on the CFO's computer, not on anyone else's. HTMLDOC also has to be installed on a given workstation before it can be used, but at least this doesn't cost anything....

Tim Horrigan, NCSD
<Tim.Horrigan@emsolution.com>

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