Printing From Web Pages

[fawkes]

There are lots of different answers all over the web on this, few of them complete for a newbie to understand so I was hoping that I could collect a general understanding here.

The problem is printing from a web page.

There are two main problems:

1. The client's PC will add headers and footers to the print out
2. It is difficult to manage page breaks

So...

1. What can you do yourself with a bit of code
2. What is out there that is free license
3. What is out there that has a cost
4. What is the standard (if there is one) way of dealing with this?

 

[jmeckley]

There are two main problems:
1. The client's PC will add headers and footers to the print out
2. It is difficult to manage page breaks

i will grant you 2. html is not designed for print.

#1 however, how can the client add headers/footers? unless you mean using javascript to modify the DOM.

the first question is what format will you be printing:
html, pdf, xls, rtf, cvs, doc?

this would have an impact on what reporting framework you may use.

the .net framework comes with Crystal Reports for .Net and Reporting Services. I have used Crystal Report for .Net (which is like a quirky cousin to the full suite of Business Objects reporting solutions). I haven't used Reporting Services, so I can't say anything about that.

there are also reporting frameworks from most of the major GUI libraries:
componentArt
Telerik
Business Objects
Dundas
Infragistics


Jason Meckley
Programmer
Specialty Bakers, Inc.

 

[fawkes]

#1 however, how can the client add headers/footers? unless you mean using javascript to modify the DOM.

by this I mean that the browser is usually setup to print page numbers the url and the page title in the headers/footers of the page

Thanks for the tip about Crystal Reports for .Net and Reporting Services, I'll take a look at those.

 

[DavidKuhn0422]

I would definately look at Crystal, if you are using SQL Server 2k5 or 2k8 then look into Reporting Services. They are both great tools.

I would also look into a CSS framework like Blueprint

http://www.blueprintcss.org/.

This framework helps in a lot of css problems, but specifically helping in your problem of printing a webpage.