pdf generation takes time

[Nick Renders]

Hi Paul,

I know, worker objects are the way to go. But sometimes you just want a "quick and dirty" solution without having to re-write the whole printing procedure (especially when it's 30 year old Omnis 7 code ;)

Nick


On 5 May 2025, at 10:38, Paul Mulroney wrote:

> Hi Nick
>
> $pdfcomplete works in the fat client too!  We used to do something similar to you, but found the CPU usage goes to 100% while Omnis screams around in loop waiting for the report to finish.  Only downside is that you need to handle the $pdfcomplete() as a callback - Omnis will tell you when it's done, so you need your code to stop at that point, and then re-start when the $pdfcomplete() method fires.
>
> Regards
> Paul.
>
>> On 5 May 2025, at 3:23 pm, Nick Renders via omnisdev-en <omnisdev-en at lists.omnis-dev.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Geert,
>>
>> In our fat client, we read the PDF file in a loop. If the binary is the same size as before, the printing is done.
>>
>> Calculate i as #CT
>> Calculate lBinary as #NULL
>> Repeat
>> 	Calculate lBinary2 as lBinary
>> 	If rFileOps.$doesFileExist(lFilePath)
>> 		Do rFileOps.$readFile(lFilePath,kTrue) Returns lBinary
>> 	End If
>> Until #CT>i+600|(binlength(lBinary)>0&binlength(lBinary)=binlength(lBinary2))    ## 10 seconds
>>
>>
>> Nick Renders
>>
>>
>> On 4 May 2025, at 16:46, Geert wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I'm generating a product sheet from a js form by requesting several data in an object from a REST api (pictures, text, url's, picture for every possible colour up to 20,...)
>>> Using a report class printing to O$11 PDF device (Windows 11)
>>> After the  (4MB to 10MB) file is generated (it takes a few seconds) I show the pdf in another tab page in the browser. (or in the future maybe return a REST response or upload the file to an assets library).
>>>
>>> The problem : things go too fast in Omnis Studio.  The pdf file is not yet created or still open when I want to show the pdf.
>>> This can be monitored when issuing Do $devices.PDF.$setparam(kDevOmnisPDFParamKeepScriptAndPNGs,kTrue)
>>>
>>> The reason : the PDF file is created by Node.js (which is built-in into Omnis).  Omnis generates the .js file plus the PNGs and Node.js executes the .js file to generate the PDF.  So Omnis code continues while node.js is still writing to the pdf file.
>>>
>>> The possible solution : adding a loop to wait a second, use FileOps to test existence and after that use oFileOps to test if not open anymore.  This does not seem to work.  I still get an error message in the browser that the pdf file couldn't show.  Retrying a few times the pdf is shown anyway but that's not user friendly.
>>>
>>> Do you guys have another workaround to know when node.js is really finished ?
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Geert
>>>
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>
>
> I hate it when people use big words just to make themselves sound perspicacious.
> -- 
> Paul W. Mulroney                                            We Don't Do Simple Pty Ltd
> pmulroney at logicaldevelopments.com.au       Trading as Logical Developments
> www.logicaldevelopments.com.au                   ACN 161 009 374
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