PAC Project Strategy String Table Data to PDF for Customer Report

We currently provide the customer a text file via File Zilla from data stored in a String Table.
Customers are requesting this report be in PDF that would be stored on the C:\ drive.

Currently using: Opto PAC Project Pro, but would like the solution to work with PAC Project Basic.

The saving of the text file (report) to the C:\ drive is currently triggered from a PAC Display button with the ‘Launch Application’ function.

It would be nice if this solution could create & save the PDF report directly to the C:\ drive instead of saving a text file, then having to run an external application to convert this to PDF format.

I’m sure someone has accomplished this. Thanks for the assitance.

Dave W

I would think your best bet for this would be installing a PDF printer on the Windows PC and then triggering a print job via the launch application command.

  1. When a flag gets set to 1, launch the application to export your report to text. Sounds like you already have this done. Use the notification to set the flag to 2.
  2. When the flag gets set to 2, launch an application to print the exported text file to PDF. This should be a lot like Step #1. You could look into the CutePDF writer. I’ve used it before, but it’s been years. For the notification, set the flag back to 0 (idle).

There is probably a way to do this utilizing the Microsoft PDF Printer and power shell to script in the file name as well:

See here:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/04ddfe8c-a07f-4d9b-afd6-04b147f59e28/automating-printing-to-pdf?forum=winserverpowershell

There are csv to pdf utilities available. Some charge and some are free. I have successfully used a utility called Total CSV Converter (coolutils.com) to do this conversion from PacDisplay. Like you mentioned, the csv file gets created in PacControl. You can create a batch file using a setup mode within the tool that can then be called to do the conversion. There was also a csvViewer included which I called from PacDisplay to launch their viewer. The viewer was ok for showing a spreadsheet-like view of the csv file, but it didn’t have a print function, which would have been nice.
This one had a $59 licensing fee, which was ok for a one-time use. This particular utility was so-so. I would recommend it if you don’t find anything you like better, but I would certainly look at what else is available.

All,
Great ideas and some steps to start ‘digging’ around. A few customers have asked for this, it has been on our ‘upgrade’ list for awhile. Little fires constantly put out the ‘upgrades’, little fires are annoying :slight_smile:
We’re also running into, occasionally, the data csv file not being exported/saved to the C:\ drive. I’ll admit, we are using “old” versions of PAC Project, PAC Display, Filezilla. We were planning on stepping into the ‘real’ Opto PAC world with the next major upgrade. Again, the ‘little fires’, we just need to take the plunge and do it.
Maybe running the latest versions will help with some of these requests.
But my thought was to use the ‘launch application’ in PAC Display, similar to how we currently save the csv file. I may go for an automated script or batch file that would run the PDF conversion when it sees a new csv file, or something like that. Trying to minimize the operator intervention.
Thanks
Dave

If you’re looking for a bit more customization, you could also look into passing your data to a custom script and use a PDF authoring library. I’m a big fan of Prawn PDF and Ruby, so you could look into that. Doing that would give you control over formatting and you could fairly easily create a nicely branded PDF if you’re looking for something that’s more than just raw data. Admittedly I haven’t used the Ruby/Prawn combination on Windows, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.