RadEditor ExportToPDF not generating PDF in client's environment - asp.net

We are using the Telerik RadEditor control, specifically for it's ability to render a PDF via the ExportToPDF() method on the control. We find that this works great in our development and test environments but fails as soon as we get to our client's environment. What I mean by fails is that typically when you execute the ExportToPDF() method, a dialog box pops up with the name of the PDF file, it's size, and whether you want to open it or save it. In our client's environment that dialog window appears, but the file size does not appear. If you save the file, it's a blank document. The machines / environments are equal in their setup (IIS 6 on Windows server 2003). The only exception is that our client's machine is in a secure environment with no access to the internet.
We are loading form letters into the control and then creating the PDF once the user clicks a button, so I don't think this is being caused by bad data / invalid characters causing the PDF not to generate.
My questions are: does anyone have experience running the ExportToPDF() command in an environment with no access to the internet? Could this be a permissions issue? I can't seem to find documentation on whether the ExportToPDF() functionality uses a temporary directory to write the PDF out to while it's rendering. It may be as simple as that, but I'm having a hard time researching this issue.
I've also put a try / catch block around the ExportToPDF() method and I know it's not throwing any errors.
We are running an older version of RadEditor - 2009.3.1208 - it runs in a large application with other Telerik tools so upgrading the entire RadControl suite is not trivial (b/c of testing, etc) and is taking some time.
Any suggestions on what to try next / has anyone encountered anything like this with this control?
Thanks for your help in advance!
Richard

I doubt that the export functionality needs an active internet connection. Most likely something in your secured environment is blocking silently the export and it does not simply happen. My recommendation is to check the permissions/processes you have on the user machine and test the same outside of the local environment to compare the results.

Related

Using IIS Express for Local Web Application with Multiple Users [duplicate]

I have a line of code that I can run locally as part of a service that works perfectly fine.
sReportPath = objCrystalUtils.ExportReportToPDF("Report Name", iReportInfoID)
This code is run as a part of a service, and when I unit test it by feeding it data, it ultimately builds the report and prints it.
When I run the exact same piece of code inside an .ashx from an ajax call. The reports are generated (I can see the pdf files being created on disk) but the printing is not happening.
oRpt.PrintToPrinter(objReport.DefaultAutoPrint, True, 0, 0)
In both scenarios the same code is used to print the report. (objReport.DefaultAutoPrint = 0 in both cases)
My only thought is that the location of the code that is calling this method is in a different spot relative to the location of the bills themselves.
The printer that I'm trying to print to is a network printer intalled on my machine, and I'm running Windows 7 IIS 6.1
Any thoughts?
Edit:
Here is a thought... if I'm running one as a unit test locally and im running the other through a web app that is running via IIS, is there a difference in user id and user access to the default printer?
Edit:
So I added my local ASP, IUSR and SYSTEM users to the printer security and allowed them to print... no dice. So I checked the EVERYONE user and it is set to access and NO users are denied... so I think that kinda kills that line of reasoning.
Edit:
I changed the name of this post since I no longer think that the issue is ajax related since If I try to do the same process in code bebehind from a post back instead of running it from an ajax call i still get the same problem.
Patrick, for me it is a known issue of crystal reports, printing a certain report from a running application via IIS.
I got the same issue before, and upon our search for that issue, we got the following;
Report to be generated, exported, and then to be downloaded to client machine,
so user can print it locally (say, report will be exported as PDf file,
user can use print option of PDF reader).
It's not Crystal Reports or other third party app's problem. It's usually the IIS_IUSER's permission problem because it has no access to any network printers. A possible solution is in Process.Start doesn't work in IIS

Deploying a salesforce.com flex app without visualforce

SHORT VERSION: I have a Flex app that uses Salesforce.com's API. I am trying to deploy it to a remote server but keep getting "Error during login process." when I try to have it log in to salesforce's servers. What gives?
LONG VERSION (maybe someone finds this useful later): I have a flex application that's an add-on for salesforce.com
If I upload it as a static file to salesforce and then embed it in a visualforce page, it works fine. This method uses "loginBySessionId" rather than loginByCredentials.
I would like to be able to run it outside of salesforce's servers. IE, I would like to host the app on my own server and have people enter their credentials in the app and have it login to salesforce's servers. This way, if someone wants to try my application, they do not have to be salesforce administrators and do not have to install the app into a visualforce page.
Here's where the trouble is. If I enter my login information and run it from the compiler, it connects and loads the right data. If I export it as a production release, it still runs fine. However, if I either upload the release files to my own server, or if I transfer them to another computer and run them locally, i get an "Error during login process" Seems some others have had similar issues, but no solutions and nothing new.
Weirder still, if I transfer the project files to another computer and recompile them, it suddenly works. So basically, seems like I have to recompile the app for each computer I plan on running it on, but that's not practical. Even still, I don't see how that could possibly be making a difference, compiling on one vs the other. And yes, same versions of flash, same versions of Flex.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to resolve this? Am I just misunderstanding something with how to deploy flex applications or is this some screwy thing with the salesforce API and there's a workaround?
As one added thing that makes this problem particularly frustrating is that I can't use the debugger because if I compile it on another computer, it works, so in order for me to get the error I have to build, then transfer to another computer. I feel like this could be a key to the problem, but I'm not sure how.
Here is some applicable code, pretty basic:
<flexforforce:F3WebApplication
id="app" statusChanged="statusChangedHandler(event)"
loginComplete="loginCompleteHandler(event)"
loginFailed="loginFailedHandler(event)"
sessionExpired="sessionExpiredHandler(event)"
serverUrl="http://na9.salesforce.com/services/Soap/u/19.0"
requiredTypes="Account,Contact,Opportunity,Lead,Task,User" />
protected function loginClickHandler( event : MouseEvent ) : void {
_username = 'LOGIN#LOGIN.COM';
_password = 'PASSWORD+SECURITY_TOKEN';
CursorManager.setBusyCursor();
app.loginByCredentials( _username, _password );
}
To clarify, you probably need something like this on initialization :
flash.system.Security.loadPolicyFile("http://na9.salesforce.com/services/Soap/crossdomain.xml");
The reason it works when you compile it is that a lot of the default security is not applicable when on same machine as compiled. Heck, you can even access the hard drive in paths (like a relative URL path to an image on the hard drive) - try running the swf on another computer and bam- no go.
This is an excellent indicator you're hitting a player / VM security issue :)

WebService Debug Synchronization (why do my breakpoints give the message "The source code is different from the original version"?)

I'm fairly new to web service development, and I am really confused about how ASP.Net Development Server synchronizes with code during debug mode. When I make changes to my service, I cannot figure out how to propigate those changes so that my client can "see" them (I've been able to synchronize through a stumbling series of publishing the service, viewing the service in browser, etc... but I have a feeling there's a more reliable system than my random ritual).
Here are the symptoms I'm seeing: After I've made a change to the code behind my service (Service1.svc.cs), started the application through the debugger and attached the debugger to the WebDev.WebServer.exe process as well, my latest changes are not executed, and my breakpoints are not hit (they have the message that
"The source code is different from the original version."
What really baffles me, though, is that when the ASP.Net Development Server notification pops up in my system tray, its physical path points to my project folder, so I don't understand how it could be looking at anything but my current code files.
I do not like to play with knives but the only thing that worked for me involves editing the .csproj file itself. So, unload the project file, edit it by cutting and pasting the three asp.net files so that they are together in the ItemGroup. However, sometimes it is necessary to go further as explained here: http://carnotaurus.tumblr.com/post/4130422114/visual-studio-debugging-issue-with-files-of-the-same - Also, I give a list of other proposed solutions that did not work for me. I hope it helps.

Send data to Com port from a web page

I'm new to web development so please, could you help me to understand if I'm working in the right direction?
There will be a webpage intended for our customers (not intranet) from where they can print labels. Some of the larger customers will have special label printers where configuration and printing using COM-port is the only acceptable option. Basically we have very limited knowledge and control over their environment.
The web-page itself will be a pretty simple html-page or more complex AJAX.
After the customer inputs all the data and happens to chose this type of printing we have following tasks:
1) get data about the printers on the customer's system installed to a comport and if possible get printer settings (like paper size and orientation). Ideally would like to be able to adjust the settings, but if it is a pain can just put into requirements that your printer must be installed to COM1 and configured correctly.
2) send commands and read answers and send PCL code to the selected com port
As I understand I'll need to install something on the customer's machine to be able to talk to com port and get any settings. Just HTML+Javascript are not capable of doing that. Right?
I found RXTX library which seems to communicate to com port on most platforms. Can it be called from JavaScript or I still need to do a Java plugin? Are there technologies other than Java plugin that would solve the task?
The web-page will be used in different environment - platforms and web-browsers. We would like to minimize the number of customized solutions. Will Java allow us to do the same plugin for all environments with minimal customization?
If we require the user to install a plugin will the user be prompted with our credentials to confirm the installation? Will our web-site require higher trust settings?
Thanks for you help!
Well, I've had to do this in the past. Here is what I did and the circumstances
1) I knew that our customers were in a windows environment so I wrote win32 software to handle the printing.
2) I created a file format to be read by the win32 software that allowed me to specify print parameters and the label data. XML works ok for things like this.
3) My web app created a file in the format used by the win32 software and returned it to the user when they clicked on the "Print Labels" button. The file extension on the file returned was registered by the installer of the win32 software. That means when their browser looked for a default app handler for that file, it found my win32 software.
Bottom line is that the browser is handing off the printer communications to a native application instead of talking directly to the printer.
Obviously you need to be able to dictate your end user's are using a windows machine (or mac or whatever you can write native code). Associating a file extension with my program and returning that file to the user was the key to making the process work for me.
Whether your native code sends pcl directly to the printer or translates into a print api (like the win32 api as mine does) is another consideration.
Another approach you could consider is instead of sending PCL codes, you could create a PDF of the document. Format the document to the size and orientation of the label printer. The user will still have to hit the print button, but that might work. I have done this for printing to bar code printers and it works fine. Sometimes getting the margin and orientation correct is a little tricky, but that can be figured out.

ASP.NET MVC - Unable to print ASP.NET Charting control on server

Trying to print an ASP.NET Charting control behind the scenes in my web app. I think it is a permissions issue with the printer as everything is ok up until the point where my code calls:
chart.Printing.Print(false);
bool finished = false;
while (!finished)
{
finished = File.Exists(settings.GetValue("statusfile")); // file which indicates document was printed
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
At this point the page just freezes (or continues to load endlessly - infinite loop!) Understandably this is happening because I am 100% relying on the document being printed. I do intend to add a timeout, however, at the moment I am just trying to figure out why exactly the document is never being set to the printer!
I have given the account (which the AppPool is running under) permissions to all the relevant folders and even the pdf printer itself...Still nothing.
Am I missing something? Is there any issues with printing on the server side via ASP.NET? I have encountered some issues doing this via WindowsServices in the past not sure if it is a similar problem with ASP.NET websites.
Update
As suggested I updated the AppPool to give myself (admin) permissions and it is the same issue. So by the looks of things the job is never being sent to the printer. I can't seem to figure out why though...
Probably should have mentioned this in my original post....but I am invoking the printer through a referenced DLL, this code is not being called directly from my application (incase it matters). Also this runs fine on my Development machine which is running Windows 7 IIS7.0 where as the server is running Windows 2003 server with IIS6.0.
Update 2
I removed the while loop and just left in the chart.Printing.Print(false) line and turns out the document IS being sent to the printer. So the issue must be with the settings file not getting written which is why the loop never breaks out!
To isolate if this is indeed a permissions issue, you could try running the application using the Visual Studio web development server, which will run under your credentials. Or if that's not an option, temporarily change the IIS app pool so it uses your credentials. If things still do not work, you may have another issue. I'm not sure which charting library you're using (is it the newish Microsoft one?), but maybe Print wants to show a printer dialog.

Resources