We've got a large stock of paper forms that we need to fill out. It's very tedious to do this by hand, so we're building an application. It should provide a form to fill in data, be able to show print preview, print the data on the paper form, and keep the history.
Currently, we have a FixedPage which we print like this:
var dlg = new PrintDialog();
if (dlg.ShowDialog() == true)
{
var doc = new FixedDocument();
doc.DocumentPaginator.PageSize = new Size(11.69 * 96, 8.27 * 96); // A4 Landscape
var fp = Application.LoadComponent(new Uri("/FixedPage.xaml", UriKind.Relative)) as FixedPage;
fp.DataContext = this;
fp.UpdateLayout();
var pc = new PageContent();
((IAddChild)pc).AddChild(fp);
doc.Pages.Add(pc);
dlg.PrintTicket.PageOrientation = System.Printing.PageOrientation.Landscape;
dlg.PrintDocument(doc.DocumentPaginator, string.Format("Form #{0}", FormNumber));
}
For the print preview we have a custom UserControl with scanned image of the paper form on background and the data on foreground. Basically, it's repeating the FixedPage layout, and all this makes us think there's a flaw in our design.
Is there a better way to do what we want?
I was tasked with the same problem and wanted to avoid writing my own templating system to save time, unit testing, and my sanity.
I ended up writing a hybrid to did some cool things. First, I wrote my templates using HTML and CSS. It was very easy to do and allowed for great flexibility when making minor adjustments from our Marketing department.
I filled the template with my own tags (e.g [code_type/], [day_list]...[/day_list]) and string replaced the text with a dictionary of tags that could be a single or multivalued.
After generating the html, I would use an html to pdf library I found that uses the open-source webkit engine to render and create the generated pdf. It turned out very stable and took around 2 weeks to write the initial program. Everyone was very pleased and testing was a breeze.
If you want more details, send me a message or reply to this.
We have managed to find a solution, which allows us to throw away a bunch of renundant code. It is still ugly:
public class CustomDocumentViewer : DocumentViewer
{
public static readonly DependencyProperty BackgroundImageProperty =
DependencyProperty.Register("BackgroundImage", typeof(Image), typeof(CustomDocumentViewer), new UIPropertyMetadata(null));
public Image BackgroundImage
{
get { return GetValue(BackgroundImageProperty) as Image; }
set { SetValue(BackgroundImageProperty, value); }
}
protected override void OnDocumentChanged()
{
(Document as FixedDocument).Pages[0].Child.Children.Insert(0, BackgroundImage);
base.OnDocumentChanged();
}
protected override void OnPrintCommand()
{
var printDialog = new PrintDialog();
if (printDialog.ShowDialog() == true)
{
(Document as FixedDocument).Pages[0].Child.Children.RemoveAt(0);
printDialog.PrintDocument(Document.DocumentPaginator, "Test page");
(Document as FixedDocument).Pages[0].Child.Children.Insert(0, BackgroundImage);
}
}
}
...
<local:CustomDocumentViewer x:Name="viewer" BackgroundImage="{StaticResource PaperFormImage}"/>
...
InitializeComponent();
viewer.Document = Application.LoadComponent(new Uri("/PaperFormDocument.xaml", UriKind.Relative)) as IDocumentPaginatorSource;
The reason why we're using Application.LoadComponent instead of binding is a five years old bug: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=293646
Related
I have a WPF application in which I have 3 forms of prints. In 2 ways, I use directly a window's visual and use PrintVisual(myPanel, "Title") to print it. And in 3rd, I got to print multiple pages so I am using FlowDocument, StackPanel and finally IDocumentPaginatorSource and call PrintDocument to print.
All the code is working perfectly on my system. I can perform Print on OneNote and XPS and it works as expected. But the same app, when I try to run on other system it shows blank page for all 3 prints. PrintVisual is supported on .NET 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, so I can't find a reason for it not to work.
I will also share my some code, for better clarity :
// 1 PRINT
public void PrintRegister()
{
PrintDialog pd = new PrintDialog();
if (pd.ShowDialog() == true)
pd.PrintVisual(this, "Register Window");
return;
}
// 2 PRINT
public static void PrintAttendanceOf(System.Data.DataRow r1) {
PrintLayoutWindowPORT plw = PrintUtility.CreatePrintLayoutWindowPORTObject(r1); // PORTRAIT
Canvas p1 = PrintUtility.CloneCanvas(plw._PrintCanvas, 5);
Grid myPanel = new Grid();
myPanel.Margin = new Thickness(10);
myPanel.Children.Add(p1);
PrintDialog pd = new PrintDialog();
pd.PageRangeSelection = PageRangeSelection.AllPages;
PrintQueue pq = pd.PrintQueue;
pq.DefaultPrintTicket.PageOrientation = PageOrientation.Portrait;
pd.PrintTicket = pq.DefaultPrintTicket;
double pageWidth = pd.PrintableAreaWidth;
double pageHeight = pd.PrintableAreaHeight;
myPanel.Measure(new Size(pageWidth, pageHeight));
//myPanel.Arrange(new Rect(new Point(1, 1), myPanel.DesiredSize));
myPanel.UpdateLayout();
if (pd.ShowDialog().GetValueOrDefault(false))
{
pd.PrintVisual(myPanel, "Attendance Chart");
}
pd = null;
plw.Close();
plw = null;
myPanel = null;
p1 = null;
return;
}
Code for the 3rd Print i.e. Multiple Pages is quiet long, hence have not added it now here. If required, can post it.
Can anyone help me know the reason for printing blank page and no contents on other system. I feel some sort of compatibility or system or resource may be required or what else?
Any help is highly appreciated.
Thanks
I am using tchart with graphics 3d for real time chart plotting. whenever I try to call print preview for the chart, the preview page is just a blank page and the actual chart background becomes black. I tried different tricks and i found this printpreview works in normal canvas. but as soon as i write the line
Chart1.Graphics3D = new Graphics3DDirect2D(Chart1.Chart);
print preview does not work .
If I call export function, e.g. export to pdf functionality then the pdf file has exported chart in it and alternate route can be I can print the pdf.
But I want to use print preview and give user a functionality to change margins and other things as per their need.
Link for the demo project is http://www.filedropper.com/sampleprojecttchartprint
Link for the Video describing issue is http://tinypic.com/r/2ufg7f5/5
What am I doing wrong here?
There is a limitation with the wrapper TeeChart uses, a limitation documented here:
http://bugs.teechart.net/show_bug.cgi?id=356
As suggested, the workaround is to use the GDI+ canvas for image exportation, e.g.
private void InitializeChart()
{
tChart1.Graphics3D = new Graphics3DDirect2D(tChart1.Chart);
tChart1.Aspect.View3D = false;
FastLine series = new FastLine(tChart1.Chart);
series.FillSampleValues(1000);
}
TChart tChart2;
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if(tChart2 == null) tChart2 = new TChart();
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
tChart1.Export.Template.Save(ms);
ms.Position = 0;
tChart2.Import.Template.Load(ms);
tChart2.Export.Image.PNG.Width = tChart1.Width;
tChart2.Export.Image.PNG.Height = tChart1.Height;
tChart2.Export.Image.PNG.Save(#"C:\tmp\direct2d.png");
}
Below is the process I worked in Windows forms for printing.
I used PrintDocument class. It contains PrintPage event and I used that to draw the graphics of what I need to print and obtained the result successfully as I expected.
Below is the code:
public PrintDocument Printing
{
m_printDocument = new PrintDocument();
m_printDocument.PrintPage += new PrintPageEventHandler(OnPrintPage);
}
The code for OnPrintPage as follows:
protected virtual void OnPrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
//Image img = I have the things to be printing in the form of image.
e.Graphics.DrawImage(img, new Point(0,0));
}
In WPF:
I am working with Fixed document and by using the below code I can print
PrintDialog print = new PrintDialog();
print.PrintDocument(FixedDocument.DocumentPaginator, "Print") //Where Fixed document contains the data to be printed.
This results is insufficient memory to continue the execution of the program.
But I got Fixed document without any problem.
Any solutions ...?
I hope the similar thing as like Windows form would be there in WPF too...
I used to get this when my pages contained lots of visual elements (drawings/images/ complex diagrams). Instead of printing the complete document at once (which can lead to out of memory)
print.PrintDocument(FixedDocument.DocumentPaginator, "Print")
I printed one of its page.
PrintQueue selectedPrntQueue = printDialog.PrintQueue;
XpsDocumentWriter writer = PrintQueue.CreateXpsDocumentWriter(selectedPrntQueue);
SerializerWriterCollator collator = writer.CreateVisualsCollator();
collator.BeginBatchWrite();
var paginator = FixedDocument.DocumentPaginator;
FixedPage fixedPage = paginator.GetFixedPage(printedPageCount)
ContainerVisual newPage = new ContainerVisual();
Size sz = new Size(pageSize.Height.Value, pageSize.Width.Value);
fixedPage.Measure(sz);
fixedPage.Arrange(new Rect(new Point(), sz));
fixedPage.UpdateLayout();
newPage.Children.Add(fixedPage);
collator.Write(newPage);
I had to do GC after printing few pages (my magic number was 10).
You may need to tweak the this up to your requirement.
I am trying to print the content of RichTextBox including the Adorner Layers inside.
I am using this code to print
double w = Editor.ExtentWidth; // Editor is the RichTextBox
double h = Editor.ExtentHeight;
LocalPrintServer ps = new LocalPrintServer();
PrintQueue pq = ps.DefaultPrintQueue;
XpsDocumentWriter xpsdw = PrintQueue.CreateXpsDocumentWriter(pq);
PrintTicket pt = pq.UserPrintTicket;
if (xpsdw != null)
{
pt.PageOrientation = PageOrientation.Portrait;
PageMediaSize pageMediaSize = new PageMediaSize(w, h);
pt.PageMediaSize = pageMediaSize;
xpsdw.Write(Editor);
}
The problem I'm facing is that this code only prints the content that is visible on the screen, not the whole content of the Editor.
EDIT
The pictures are adorner layers, If I print using the method above, it only prints the visible part on the screen not the whole document.
Edit
I'm trying to print each page separately but I cant force Editor.InvalidateVisual(); after doing a Editor.PageDown(); Is there a way I can do that in my method ?
When controls draw on the adorner layer, they search up the tree until they find an adorner layer. Often times this is a the window level. In some cases, you'll want an adorner layer closer to the control, or directly around the control. In this case, wrap the control with an <AdornerDecorator><RichTextBox /></AdornerDecorator>
In your case, you'd probably want to pass a parent element of adorner decorator, or the decorator itself to the print logic. This way the print logic would include the adorner layer as part of the visual. Maybe something like this:
<Grid Name="EditorWrapper">
<AdornerDecorator>
<RichTextBox />
</AdornerDecorator>
</Grid>
Then, pass "EditorWrapper" to the print logic.
EDIT
If you just want to print the contents of the RichTextBox, then you might be best to use the built-in pagination capabilities of the FlowDocument. FlowDocument implements IDocumentPaginatorSource, which will return a paginator that can print the document. Pass that paginator to the XpsDocumentWriter and it should dump the content properly.
var doc = Editor.Document;
var src = doc as IDocumentPaginatorSource;
var pag = src.DocumentPaginator;
xpsdw.Write(pag);
I found this code here:
// Serialize RichTextBox content into a stream in Xaml or XamlPackage format. (Note: XamlPackage format isn't supported in partial trust.)
TextRange sourceDocument = new TextRange(richTextBox.Document.ContentStart, richTextBox.Document.ContentEnd);
MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
sourceDocument.Save(stream, DataFormats.Xaml);
// Clone the source document's content into a new FlowDocument.
FlowDocument flowDocumentCopy = new FlowDocument();
TextRange copyDocumentRange = new TextRange(flowDocumentCopy.ContentStart, flowDocumentCopy.ContentEnd);
copyDocumentRange.Load(stream, DataFormats.Xaml);
// Create a XpsDocumentWriter object, open a Windows common print dialog.
// This methods returns a ref parameter that represents information about the dimensions of the printer media.
PrintDocumentImageableArea ia = null;
XpsDocumentWriter docWriter = PrintQueue.CreateXpsDocumentWriter(ref ia);
if (docWriter != null && ia != null)
{
DocumentPaginator paginator = ((IDocumentPaginatorSource)flowDocumentCopy).DocumentPaginator;
// Change the PageSize and PagePadding for the document to match the CanvasSize for the printer device.
paginator.PageSize = new Size(ia.MediaSizeWidth, ia.MediaSizeHeight);
Thickness pagePadding = flowDocumentCopy.PagePadding;
flowDocumentCopy.PagePadding = new Thickness(
Math.Max(ia.OriginWidth, pagePadding.Left),
Math.Max(ia.OriginHeight, pagePadding.Top),
Math.Max(ia.MediaSizeWidth - (ia.OriginWidth + ia.ExtentWidth), pagePadding.Right),
Math.Max(ia.MediaSizeHeight - (ia.OriginHeight + ia.ExtentHeight), pagePadding.Bottom));
flowDocumentCopy.ColumnWidth = double.PositiveInfinity;
// Send DocumentPaginator to the printer.
docWriter.Write(paginator);
}
Adorner layers are are drawing oriented. So one option left is to convert the entire RichTextBox into a drawing and print that as an Image in XPS.
Although this poses multiple issues...
It will print the external and internal contents that occupy or occupied by the richtextbox i.e. editor toolbar (if it is part of the control template of the rich text box), internal scroll bars etc.
If there are scrollbars then the content out of the scrollbars are not going to be printed as the image will be the exact "snapshot" of the textbox (with remaining text clipped by srollbars).
Will you be happy with that?
I didn't find any way that works 100% for this problem, so I'm trying to transform all my adorner layers to actual images. I'll update the question once I get a 100% working solution.
I have a Panel filled with a lot of controls for users to fill. These include textboxes, checkboxes, radiobuttons etc. It is a long form to fill so the controls are in a scrollable panel. What I need is to save the whole panel as pdf. I think PDFsharp is a good library to be able to save any text or image as a pdf file but I don't want to write code for every single control inside the panel. I once wrote a class to create a pdf file from a Control object. It was iterating all inner controls (and their inner controls until no inner control is left) of the given control and write their Text property (yes/no for chekable controls) to pdf using their Location and Size properties. I could not find it now but I remember it was having issues with some of the DevExpress controls I use so I didn't bother writing it again. (Edit: I had to, you can find it below.) I think taking a screenshot and save that image as pdf would be nice but I couldn't find out how to achieve it. This question seems like it but there is no satisfying answer to that.
So, screenshot or not I'm open for any advice. There should be many occasions where users must fill long forms and be able to keep it as pdf. Again, any advice or workaround would be appreciated. (I think about creating the form using html, displaying it in a WebBrowser control and using an html to pdf library but I really prefer using my existent form)
Many Thanks.
Edit:
I had to write something iterates inner controls of a container control (like a panel) and writes every inner control to a pdf using their Location, Size and Font properties though, I don't recommend to use it (at least as it is) because of these:
It sets the page's size to given control's size and use only one (usually huge) pdf page. You can add a logic to split it to pages if you need to. (I didn't, but I guess you'll probably need your pdf more printer friendly).
Cheeso's method (using a FlowDocument) is a much more "legitimate" way for a task like this. I prefer using that over this but I didn't have a choice in this instance.
I used PDFsharp in this code. You can find it in it's hompage or it's CodePlex page.
PdfReport class:
private PdfDocument Document;
public Control Control { get; private set; }
public PdfReport(Control control) { Control = control; }
public PdfDocument CreatePdf(PdfDocument document = null)
{
Document = document != null ? document : new PdfDocument();
PdfPage page = Document.AddPage();
page.Height = Control.Height;
page.Width = Control.Width;
XGraphics gfx = XGraphics.FromPdfPage(page);
foreach (PdfItem item in CreatePdf(new Point(0, 0), Control.Controls))
{
XStringFormat format = item.IsContainer ? XStringFormats.TopLeft : item.TextAlign == ContentAlignment.BottomCenter ? XStringFormats.BottomCenter : item.TextAlign == ContentAlignment.TopLeft ? XStringFormats.TopLeft : item.TextAlign == ContentAlignment.TopCenter ? XStringFormats.TopCenter : XStringFormats.Center;
gfx.DrawString(item.Text, item.Font, item.Brush, new XRect(item.Location, item.Size), format);
}
return Document;
}
private IEnumerable<PdfItem> CreatePdf(Point location, Control.ControlCollection controls)
{
List<PdfItem> items = new List<PdfItem>();
foreach (Control control in controls)
{
if (control.Controls.Count > 0)
items.AddRange(CreatePdf(control.Location, control.Controls));
items.Add(new PdfItem(control, location));
}
return items;
}
public void SaveAsPdf(string path, bool open = false)
{
CreatePdf().Save(path);
if (open)
Process.Start(path);
}
PdfItem class:
public string Text { get; set; }
public Point Location { get; set; }
public Size Size { get; set; }
public Font Font { get; set; }
public bool IsContainer { get; set; }
public ContentAlignment TextAlign { get; set; }
public Color ForeColor { get; set; }
public XBrush Brush { get { return new SolidBrush(ForeColor); } }
public PdfItem() { }
public PdfItem(string text, Point location, Font font, Color foreColor, Size size, bool isContainer = false, ContentAlignment alignment = ContentAlignment.MiddleCenter)
{
Text = text;
Location = location;
Size = size;
Font = new Font(font.FontFamily, font.Size, font.Style, GraphicsUnit.World);
TextAlign = alignment;
ForeColor = foreColor;
IsContainer = isContainer;
}
public PdfItem(string text, Point location, Size size)
: this(text, location, new Font("Calibri", 12), Color.Black, size) { }
public PdfItem(Control control, Point parentLocation)
: this(control.Text, control.Location, control.Font, control.ForeColor, control.Size, control.Controls.Count > 0)
{
Location = new Point(Location.X + parentLocation.X, Location.Y + parentLocation.Y);
IEnumerable<PropertyInfo> properties = control.GetType().GetProperties();
if (properties.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name == "TextAlign" && p.PropertyType == typeof(ContentAlignment)) != null)
TextAlign = (control as dynamic).TextAlign;
if (properties.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name == "Checked" && p.PropertyType == typeof(bool)) != null)
{
string title = control.Text != null && control.Text.Length > 0 ? string.Format("{0}: ", control.Text) : string.Empty;
Text = string.Format("{0}{1}", title, (control as dynamic).Checked ? "Yes" : "No");
}
}
Regarding
. I think taking a screenshot and save that image as pdf would be nice but I couldn't find out how to achieve it.
There is a tool called "cropper" available on codeplex.com. It is designed to be used as a user tool that can take screenshots. It is managed code, open source.
I can imagine embedding some of the cropper magic into your app so that you could take that screenshot. I can also imagine this would be useful for collecting a diagnostic image of the screen at the time of a problem.
On the other hand... if you are interested in producing a printed form that reproduces the content on the screen, then I think you should be using WPF, in which case doing what you want is pretty easy. For example, this question describes how to do a print-preview for a FlowDocument. From that point your user can print to PDF (if he has a PDF printer installed) or print to XPS, or print to a physical output device, and so on.
I don't know if this would help you or not, but DocRaptor.com's pdf api could be built in so it would do it for you, no matter what the user inputs. It uses basic html.
As you can use the below :)
YourPanel.AutoSize = true;
int width = YourPanel.Size.Width;
int height = YourPanel.Size.Height;
Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(width, height);
YourPanel.DrawToBitmap(bm, new Rectangle(0, 0, width, height));
string outputFileName = #"C:\YourDirectory/myimage.bmp";
using (MemoryStream memory = new MemoryStream())
{
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(outputFileName, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
bm.Save(memory, ImageFormat.Bmp);
Clipboard.SetImage(bm);
byte[] bytes = memory.ToArray();
fs.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
}
}
YourPanel.AutoSize = false;
The Clipboard.SetImage will send you bm to the clipboard so you can paste them to your pdf form or whatever document
This also has an example built in that saves it as a image for you if you want.
The trick here is Autosize for your panel. It needs to be set to true so the panel resizes itself as a whole area visible, then right after you do your work you can resize it to false so it uses scrollbars again for the users screen (you may see it flash for half a second, but this code does work.
Saving it in a PDF I personally just prefer to write it there as my clipboard or you can write byte. But ITextSharp is a great library for the extension to work with!
I Really hope this helps.