Emailing Invoices

[audiopro]

Many of my clients still require paper invoices which is no problem to me as output report is printable.
For clients who
What is the accepted way to send them via email?
I have looked at PDF files and there are numerous converters available for VFP9 but I am living in the dark ages and still using VFP6. I know the answer would be to update but I do very little with VFP these days an cannot justify the expense of the update.
Is there a PDF convert for VFP6, or info about file formats so I can roll my own?

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[GriffMG]

I use XFRX (you have to buy it) and even in VFP6 is works well for fairly short reports - it can be very slow for longer reports. It will process out to a .pdf which you can then email off as you see fit.



Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

 

[audiopro]

Thanks Griff
I was looking for a simple solution or one I can roll myself.
PDF files were great once over but now they try to make them jump through hoops, I have found them unreliable.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[Mike Lewis]

Keith,

I agree with Griff's suggestion of XFRX. One of my applications has been using XFRX to generate over two thousand PDF invoices (and payment advices) per month for the last three years, without the slightest problem.

An alternative solution would be to install a PDF printer driver. This looks just like any other printer as far as your application is concerned, but it generates a PDF file instead of paper. It's really quite simple. I think this would fall into the category of a solution that you can "roll yourself".

Once you've got the PDF, there are several options for attaching it to an email. The best choice depends in part on which email system your uses use. The FAQs for this forum would be a good place to start looking.

As an alternative to emailing the PDF, you could upload it to a web server, then email the customer a link from where they can download it. A couple of my own suppliers do that. But, as a customer, I would rather receive the email as an attachment, to save the extra step of downloading.

Hope this helps.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro tips, advice, training, consultancy
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[alan92rttt]

The simple solution is to get the full adobe acrobat. When you have that any report can be printed to PDF all you need to do is set the printer to the Adobe PDF printer or change your default printer.

Alan

 

[Mike Lewis]

The simple solution is to get the full adobe acrobat. When you have that any report can be printed to PDF all you need to do is set the printer to the Adobe PDF printer or change your default printer.

Alan, what you say is true. But you'd get the same advantage from my suggestion of using a PDF printer driver, which will probably be cheaper and easier to install than the full Acrobat.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro tips, advice, training, consultancy
Custom software for your business

 

[GriffMG]

XFRX is not bad, and considering you only have to buy it once - regardless of how many client installs you do OF YOUR APP (not xfrx) - it is very good value.



Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

 

[audiopro]

Thanks Mike
I have looked at the lastest format but rolling my own isn't an option as the format appears to change regularly.

Where can I download a safe driver from (or do I risk

http://www.dodgydownloads.com)

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[JRB-Bldr]

"the format appears to change regularly."

As has been suggested above, the easiest way would be to use whatever VFP Report Forms you need so that you can modify them when needed.

Then print them using a PDF Print Driver.

We have been using one of the many free ones named BullZip (

http://www.bullzip.com/).

One of the reasons we chose that was that you can pre-configure it to always write to a single directory and always use a single 'standardized' filename.

How is that an advantage?

The VFP application first changes the workstation default printer to the BullZip printer and 'prints' the Report Form.
Then it changes the workstation default printer back to its original setting.

Now, by 'knowing' where that PDF document 'lives' and what it is named, it can move it wherever it wants and change its file name as needed - along with sending it out as an email attachment.

We send out 100's of these individually named documents to 100's of clients on a daily basis in this manner.

Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr

 

[Mike Lewis]

Keith,

There are dozens of PDF printer drivers available. On my own systems, I use a product called Docucom. It lets me pre-set the destination directory, and, with a bit of fiddling, I can programmatically set the filename as well. It has other options as well, such as whether to append each new file to the previous one or to save it separately.

But I'm not especially recomminding it. It's just the one I happen to use. If you do a Google search, you'll find many choices.

But one product I would recommend is XFRX, not least because it's designed specifically for use with VFP.

By the way, what did you mean when you said "the format appears to change regularly"? Do you mean the format of the PDF file? I'm not aware that it's changed. I know they're always adding new features, but if you just want to output some invoices, I can't see any problem with that.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro tips, advice, training, consultancy
Custom software for your business

 

[TSWA]

Hello Keith, as Mike and others said, you need a simple Driver to convert from VFP6 to PDF, I use CutePDF, save the file into Temporary Directory in HardDisk or Server and send via email using my Outlook 2003 to the list of users.

Best Regards,

Marlon