topic Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer in Digital Exchange

How to print PDF with a specific printer

lorenzwagner — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:08:17 GMT

Hello, I have the following problem/question. How can I print a PDF (not opened but location known) via an action phase? I have a list of printers, whereby I have information about the printers in a collection stage. How can I implement this and what information about the printers do I need in order to be able to select them specifically?

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:38:10 GMT

Hi @lorenzwagner

Thank you for being a SS&C Blue Prism customer, and for using Blue Prism.

PDFs can be troublesome, especially in the area of printing. The reason for this is very few of the PDF libraries support printing. The one exception is the PDFiumViewer but this project was archived some years ago and is not being developed further. However, it may work and as such I am going to look into it and see if we can get a simple ability to print pdfs. The other method of course may be to use command line switches on pdf reader applications like Acrobat reader and Foxit PDF look like possible candidates but they would need some work as they don't quit after print job completion so some sendkeys might be needed there.

So, I am going to spend a couple of days looking into this and see what I can come up with. If I get anything servicable, I will attach it as an action to the Utility - General asset on the DX. I will keep you posted.

regards

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

Athiban_Mahamathi — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 14:08:20 GMT

Hi @lorenzwagner ,

The easiest workaround to achieve this will be by creating an object for Adobe. Open your PDF in Adobe and send CTRL + P to open the printer window.

Select the printer name based on your collection and click print.

Regards,

Athiban

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

lorenzwagner — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 16:25:49 GMT

Hey @Athiban_Mahamathi thanks for your help. Would would the process look like? Sorry I am a real newbie.

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 07:56:56 GMT

Hi @lorenzwagner,

As per my previous communication I have created an asset that will print PDF files from their filepath and also allow the user to state what printer is to be used, if no printer is defined then the default will be used. This asset will be on the DX within the next week or so as it needs to make its way thru internal checks.

I hope this goes some way towards providing you with a solution.

regards

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

lorenzwagner — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 08:26:42 GMT

@GeoffHirst Thank you so much. Is it possible to provide it via a PN beforehand, so that i can test it out? And could you also state how it works? What informations do i need, such as filepath or the informations about the printer, and do i save them in a collection stage or something?

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 08:37:57 GMT

Hi @lorenzwagner,

Unfortunately, it cannot be released before the marketing QA, Legal and technical checks are done, I hope you understand.

The asset has 2 actions, one for getting a list of available printers, which will return a collection and the other is the actual printing of the PDF. You are only required to provide the filepath of the PDF and the name of the printer if you wish to print to a specific non-default printer. I will keep you posted on its progress through the checks.

regards

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 06:05:55 GMT

Hi @lorenzwagner ,

The PDF Printer asset has now cleared QA and is available for general use on the DX.

You will find it here.

There are a couple of things to do to make it work, but the documentation explains what is needed, any issues, please come back here.

I hope this helps to resolve your issues.

Thank you for being a SS&C Blue Prism Customer, and for using Blue Prism.

regards

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

Michael_S — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 11:34:23 GMT

@GeoffHirst thank you so much for solving this through an addition to the DX, and turning it around in 10 days! And great question @lorenzwagner, thank you for posting 🙂

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

lorenzwagner — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 09:30:27 GMT

@GeoffHirst Thank you so much. One final question. Assuming i identified a specific number within the PDF and based on this number i want to trigger a specific printer. Lets say i have the number "123", then i want to trigger the first printer in the first row identified and for "456", the second one and for "789" the third one. I know i would ne kind of a loop and a decision stage, but i am really lost on how such process should look like.

Currently, whatever i do, i can always only trigger the first printer in the list.

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 09:41:13 GMT

Hi,

This is moving beyond simple printing. For this you would need to open the PDF and physically access its contents. This isn't likely to be something available for free, I know the Adobe PDF services offer this but you would need to subscribe to it. We do have assets that work with these Adobe services. However, in order to actually action this you would have a number of documents, possibly held in a collection that contains the paths to the documents that you wish to print. This collection would drive the loop which would contain a number of pdf pathnames and as such have decisions that would be met after examining each document. From there you would just select the required printer, based on the criteria you have defined in the condition. It would be a case of setting a text data item to the name of the printer you wanted to use. The complexity here is actually opening the document and finding your criteria from which you would select the printer. The actual printing is now quite simple.

I hope this explains, roughly, what would be needed.

regards

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

lorenzwagner — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 09:50:13 GMT

@GeoffHirst I see, well actually we already implemented that logik to identify the text in the pdf. Lets say we temporarily saved this number in a data-item. We now check with a caluclation stage wheter this number is equal to "123". assuming it is not, we then check if it is "456". We found that it is, and have a data-item "Is 456?" with a Yes Flag. How do i get yout process to use the second row in the newly created collection stage to use the seond printer? Using Col.Printer Name.Row(2) as the input for printing didnt work.

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 10:23:59 GMT

Hi @lorenzwagner ,

You might need to take a look at the Collection Manipulation asset. This has the ability to locate a specific value dependent on a row ID. I would say that this will be a kind of 'hard coding' because the row ID of a printer, may change if you add or remove printers from the system. Just bear this in mind.

I hope this helps you take your solution forward.

regards

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

MohammedNissarK — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 16:34:46 GMT

@GeoffHirst - I am getting below error and blue prism is getting crashed while using this VBO “Function - PDF Printer” in Blue Prism v7.1.1 x64 bit. Actually I don’t see x64 folder for blue prism v7.1.1 under C:\program files\Blue prism Limited\Blue Prism Automate\ so I have placed pdfuim.dll in the base automate folder. Could you please help here.

Error: An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007000B)

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 18:18:44 GMT

Hi @MohammedNissarK,

Thank you for being a SS&C Blue Prism customer, and for using Blue Prism. If you have no x64 folder in your Blue Prism folder, create one and add in the pdfium.dll file into it.

If you are still experiencing issues after doing this, come back to me on here and we will see what else we can explore.

Thanks again for using Blue Prism and your interest in the PDF Printer asset.

regards

Geoff Hirst

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

MohammedNissarK — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 18:24:08 GMT

Hi @GeoffHirst ,

Thank you for prompt response.

I have already tried adding folder as x64 and placed pdfium.dll file. But still experiencing the same issue. Could you please suggest how to resolve this issue.

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 05:57:08 GMT

Hi @MohammedNissarK ,

I am sorry you are still having issues with the asset. However, I think I have a solution for you. You state you are using Blue Prism 7.1.1, This will be 32-Bit as true 64-Bit was not available until V7.3. So, I need to amend the documentation for the asset to explain how to use this asset in 32-Bit scenarios, as it currently isn't clear.

To assist you, please look at the following download.

https://www.nuget.org/packages/PdfiumViewer.Native.x86.v8-xfa/

Download this package as a nupkg and rename it with a .zip extension. Extract the contents and in the build folder you will find an x86 (32-bit folder) inside there is the 32-bit version of Pdfium.dll. I am sure this will resolve your problem. So, copy that file into the x86 folder inside your Blue Prism folder, if you do not have a x86 folder, please create one and copy the file into it.

From here you should be good to go. You might also consider removing the x64 folder you created as it will not have any use for the Blue Prism version you are using.

In the meantime, I will update the documentation for this asset to clarify this issue.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, it is appreciated.

regards

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

MohammedNissarK — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 06:46:40 GMT

@GeoffHirst Thank you so much for the quick support 😊 . Now I am able to print the PDF in BP version 7.1.1. Also verified same in BP 6.10 and its working.

Thank you,

Mohammed Nissar K

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

GeoffHirst — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 09:58:35 GMT

Hi @MohammedNissarK ,

I am so pleased we have managed to solve your issue, but sorry that you had the issue in the first place. As I said I would update the documentation for this scenario as it simply was not clear what was needed in the event of a 32-bit architecture. This is now done and the update documentation is now on the Digital Exchange.

Thank you for your kind reply.

regards

Re: How to print PDF with a specific printer

lorenzwagner — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 09:28:33 GMT

Dear @GeoffHirst . I am currently facing a weird problem. Your VBO works like a charm on my PC, but whenever I try to employ it on my working machine (or VM), BluePrism just crashes whenever I get to the printing stage. Sadly I am not left with any error message, it just crashes. I even disabled any firewall and I have no clue why it does not work. Do you have any idea why that could be, any Windows settings that could lead to this behavior?