I'm writing some scripts in ActionScript to automate some tasks in Adobe Indesign 2019 (part of the Creative Cloud Suite), but this applies to all scripting for all applications in Adobe Creative Cloud.
I don't want to use ExtendScript Toolkit for editing/running the script, because it is terribly slow.
Because there is no such thing as console.log() available (at least that I'm aware of) and alert() will stop for user input to continue, I created a small file logger, but it does not append the file, but keeps on overwriting the first line. I use tail -f indesign.log to monitor the log file.
Here is the code of the logger
function logger(message){
var logFilePath = new File ('indesign.log');
logFilePath.encoding = 'UTF-8';
try {
logFilePath.open('a');
}
catch(err) {
logFilePath.close();
logFilePath.open('a');
}
logFilePath.write(new Date().toLocaleString() +": " + message + "\n");
//logFilePath.writeln(new Date().toLocaleString() +": " + message + "\n");
logFilePath.close()
}
logger("Script started")
logger("2nd line")
logger("3rd line")
logger("4th line")
logger("Script finished")
I tried also using writeln instead of write, but it does not make a difference.
I tried different line feeds, like "\n" and "\r\n", but it does not make a difference.
I tried different File.open options like .open('w'), .open('ra'). The documentation about this is either not clear or really outdated (Or I just can't find it).
Any suggestions in the comments about the best IDE to edit/run ActionScripts is highly appreciated.
Related
I'm all new to Xamarin and I'm currently working on a sample or a "prove of concept" app using Xamarin.Forms.
I'm supposed to perform a print task from this app though I'm not at this point sure what to print yet (the screen, content of a label, a file etc.).
Either way, what is the easiest way to print from a Xamarin.Forms app?
(current target is primarily Android 4.4+).
I hope this isn't too complicated :)
EDIT:
Ok let me just update this post as the original text might be a bit ambitious/vague.
I have a Xamarin.Forms project (+ an Android part) and I have some HTML available in the XF part of the project that I need to get into a WebView and print it.
From what I understand, the thing with the WebView has to be done on the Android part of the project due to the fact that this is where the printing will be handled.
I was hoping this could be done from code since I don't really need to display the WebView, just print it's content.
The Android part of the project has only the MainActivity and no layouts or XAML files.
I don't know where to add the WebView or how to access it (other than DependecyService seems to be a buzz word here) so I'm kinda stuck here.
I'm thinking that this task should be rather trivial to someone with a little more Xamarin experience than me.
Every platform XF supports has it's own mechanism for printing. XF does not provide any abstractions for printing in a cross-platform manner. You will need to write printing logic for each layer and expose it to XF using DependencyService (or some other DI engine).
Here is a good example, of course, using dependency service:
https://codemilltech.com/xamarin-forms-e-z-print/
I so wanted to do this but it was too hard. Finally built it into Forms9Patch - a MIT licensed open source project.
Verifying that Printing is available
Before printing, you should verify that printing is available on your device. To do so, call:
if (Forms9Patch.PrintService.CanPrint)
{
// do the printing here
}
Print the contents of a Xamarin.Forms.WebView
using Forms9Patch;
...
var myWebView = new Xamarin.Forms.WebView
myWebView.Source = new HtmlWebViewSource
{
Html = "some HTML text here"
};
...
myWebView.Print("my_print_job_name");
Note that your WebView does not have to be attached to a Layout. This allows you to Print without having to display the WebView in your app’s UI.
Printing an HTML string
using Forms9Patch;
...
var myHtmlString = #"
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>Convert to PNG</h1>
<p>This html will be converted to a PNG, PDF, or print.</p>
</body>
</html>
";
...
myHtmlString.Print("my_print_job_name");
PLEASE NOTE: iOS sometimes places the page breaks in weird places. I have a StackOverflow Bounty on why this happens and how to fix it.
Using EmbeddedResource as a source for a Xamarin.Forms.WebView
This is sort of an experimental feature I’ve built that I’ve found it useful. As such the documentation is sparse. It allow you to put HTML content in a folder in your app’s EmbeddedResources folder and then use it as a source for a WebView. A much nicer solution than using platform specific approach provided by Xamarin. It also supports putting all of the HTML content into a zip file. Please take a look at the source code to see how it works.
You can handle the printing of lists/ invoices .. with the xfinium pdf component from xamarin componentstore. With that you create your _pdffile and then call the following method which starts the adobereader from where you can select a printer (in my case google cloudprint)
public void printPdfToCloud(string _pdffile)
{
try
{
var saveto = System.IO.Path.Combine(Android.OS.Environment.ExternalStorageDirectory.ToString(), "YourApp/"+_pdffile);
string file_path = saveto;
if (System.IO.File.Exists(file_path))
{
Android.Net.Uri pdfFile = Android.Net.Uri.FromFile(new Java.IO.File(file_path));
Intent pdfIntent = new Intent(Intent.ActionView);
pdfIntent.SetPackage("com.adobe.reader");
pdfIntent.SetDataAndType(pdfFile, "application/pdf");
pdfIntent.SetFlags(ActivityFlags.NoHistory);
StartActivity(pdfIntent);
}else
{
// give a note that the file does not exist
}
}
catch (Exception E)
{
// Do some Error dialog
}
}
We are converting word to pdf using the openoffice(3.4.1 version) in java with JODConverter.
below is the code used.
OpenOfficeConnection connection =
new SocketOpenOfficeConnection(2100);
try
{
connection.connect();
DocumentConverter converter =
new OpenOfficeDocumentConverter(connection);
converter.convert(inputFile, outputFile);
connection.disconnect();
return "Sucess " + DestinationPath + DestinationFileName;
}
catch (Exception localException1) {
}
The problem is that after random no of days the converted PDF contains the garbled fonts.
like # # ! $ $ " % &
The only solution we have so far is to restart the server. System guys are saying the the problem is with Open Office.
We are using open office to convert the document since it converts the doc files exactly including all the formatting and table structure.
what could be the solution to this.
So OpenOffice can be a little temperamental when running on a server, especially as it isn't multi-threaded and you end up having to run a pool of OpenOffice processes - see How can I use OpenOffice in server mode as a multithreaded service?.
Added to that often the rendering is off when converting to PDF - see https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=68865 which is why you may want to consider using a conversion service to automate the conversion tasks for you ?
For complete transparency I work for Zamzar (an online file conversion service), we have recently released a developer API - https://developers.zamzar.com/ that allows you to convert between a multitude of file types, specifically applicable to you here in that we support both doc and docx to pdf with little or not loss in the way the PDF is rendered. It maybe worth a look to see if this is a better alternative to trying to run your own solution through OpenOffice on a server.
I followed instructions provided here(How to create a shortcut for user's build system in Sublime Text?) to compile latex documents in xelatex, and on top of that I would also like it to automatically open pdf after compiling just like with latexmk, how can I achieve that? The document is built just fine, but I have to open it each time manually.
Here's an extension to the CompileWithXelatexCommand implementation that successfully opens the PDF in my default PDF viewer.
import sublime, sublime_plugin
import os
import time
class CompileWithXelatexCommand(sublime_plugin.TextCommand):
def run(self, edit):
if '/usr/texbin' not in os.environ['PATH']:
os.environ['PATH'] += ':/usr/texbin'
base_fname = self.view.file_name()[:-4]
pdf_fname = base_fname + ".pdf"
self.view.window().run_command('exec',{'cmd': ['xelatex','-synctex=1','-interaction=nonstopmode',base_fname]})
tries = 5
seconds_to_wait = 1
while tries > 0:
if os.path.isfile(pdf_fname):
break
time.sleep(seconds_to_wait)
seconds_to_wait *= 2
tries -= 1
os.system("open " + pdf_fname)
The polling loop is required; otherwise, the open call may happen before the PDF has been generated. There may be a cleaner way to synchronously exec a sequence of commands via run_command.
I don't have access to Windows now, but from this post you'll probably just need to change "open " to "start ". The PATH initialization logic will either need to be eliminated or adjusted.
I have read multiple posts on the issue, and none seem to come to a decent conclusion to my question. (Perhaps I'm trying to see if anything has popped up lately.)
I have a small charity app that handles pledges. In doing so, it needs to work with and print documents.
Thing is, if Word is open in the background, the app thread will hang and won't respond to the closure of Word, and I have to roll back manually and close word. Sure, that all works fine, but I simply cannot guarantee that the end user will close Word, even if I put the instruction in a user manual.
I'm not too fussed about speed, but I guess that if it can be enhanced, it would be a nice little bonus.
Have any libraries been released for Delphi that will allow me to open, edit, print, and save documents? If not, is there a way to use Word Automation in such a way that it will not conflict with another open handle of Word when opened?
If you use GetActiveOleObject, you will get the running instance of Word.
By using CreateOleObject, you will get a new instance and shouldn't be troubled by other running instances.
In case you use the TWordApplication, wrapper you can set ConnectKind to ckNewInstance to accomplish this. By default, TWordApplication will try to connect with a running instance.
If you want to open edit and print Word documents and you don't mind using RTF format for what you're doing, investigate TRichView.
It will generate rich documents that are in RTF format, which is one of the formats MS word supports. I don't think it directly reads .DOC files but you can convert .DOC and .DOCX into RTF, for most simple files, but certain advanced formatting features would be lost in the conversion.
It has the advantage of working without any need for even any copy of MS Word to be installed on the machine that is going to do the document processing. For production of receipts and other simple documents, this would be the most reliable technique; Don't use Word directly, at all.
procedure PrintViaWord (const filename: string);
const
wdUserTemplatesPath = 2;
var
wrdApp, wrdDoc, wrdSel: variant;
begin
wrdApp:= CreateOleObject ('Word.Application'); // create new instance
sleep (5000); // this fixes a bug in Word 2010 to do with opening templates
wrdDoc:= wrdApp.documents.add (
wrdApp.Options.DefaultFilePath[wdUserTemplatesPath] + '\mytemplate.dot');
wrdDoc.Select;
wrdSel:= wrdApp.selection;
wrdApp.Options.CheckSpellingAsYouType:= 0;
wrdSel.paragraphformat.alignment:= 1;
wrdSel.typetext ('This is a program demonstrating how to open Word in the background'
+ ' and add some text, print it, save it and exit Word');
wrdDoc.SaveAs (filename + '.doc');
wrdApp.ActivePrinter:= 'Konica Minolta 211';
wrdApp.PrintOut;
WrdDoc.SaveAs (filename + '.doc');
wrdApp.quit;
wrdSel:= unassigned;
wrdDoc:= unassigned;
wrdApp:= unassigned
end;
I am looking for a simple method of zipping and compressing with delphi. I have already looked at the components at torry delphi:http://www.torry.net/pages.php?s=99. They all seem as though they would accomplish what I want however a few disadvantages to using them is that none of them run in delphi 2009 and are very complex which makes it difficult for me to port them to delphi 2009. And besides, the documentation on them is scarce, well at least to me. I need basic zipping functionality without the overhead of using a bunch of DLLs. My quest lead me to FSCTL_SET_COMPRESSION which I thought would have settled the issue but unfortunately this too did not work. CREATEFILE looked promising, until I tried it yielded the same result as FSCTL_SET... I know that there are some limited native zipping capability on windows. For instance if one right clicks a file or folder and selects -> sendTo ->zipped folder, a zipped archive is smartly created. I think if I was able to access that capability from delphi it will be a solution. On a side issue, does linux have its own native zipping functions that can be used similar to this?
TurboPower's excellent Abbrevia can be downloaded for D2009 here, D2010 support is underway and already available in svn according to their forum.
Abbrevia used to be a commercial (for $$$) product, which means that the documentation is quite complete.
I use Zipforge. Why are there problems porting these to D2009? Is it because of the 64bit??
Here is some sample code
procedure ZipIt;
var
Archiver: TZipForge;
FileName: String;
begin
try
Archiver:= TZipForge.create(self);
with Archiver do begin
FileName := 'c:\temp\myzip.zip';
// Create a new archive file
OpenArchive(fmCreate);
// Set path to folder with some text files to BaseDir
BaseDir := 'c:\temp\';
// Add all files and directories from 'C:\SOURCE_FOLDER' to the archive
AddFiles('myfiletozip.txt');
// Close the archive
CloseArchive;
end;
finally
Archiver.Free;
end;
end;
If you can "do" COM from Delphi, then you can take advantage of the built-in zip capability of the Windows shell. It gives you good basic capability.
In VBScript it looks like this:
Sub CreateZip(pathToZipFile, dirToZip)
WScript.Echo "Creating zip (" & pathToZipFile & ") from folder (" & dirToZip & ")"
Dim fso
Set fso= Wscript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
If fso.FileExists(pathToZipFile) Then
WScript.Echo "That zip file already exists - deleting it."
fso.DeleteFile pathToZipFile
End If
If Not fso.FolderExists(dirToZip) Then
WScript.Echo "The directory to zip does not exist."
Exit Sub
End If
NewZip pathToZipFile
dim sa
set sa = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Dim zip
Set zip = sa.NameSpace(pathToZipFile)
WScript.Echo "opening dir (" & dirToZip & ")"
Dim d
Set d = sa.NameSpace(dirToZip)
For Each s In d.items
WScript.Echo s
Next
' http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb787866(VS.85).aspx
' ===============================================================
' 4 = do not display a progress box
' 16 = Respond with "Yes to All" for any dialog box that is displayed.
' 128 = Perform the operation on files only if a wildcard file name (*.*) is specified.
' 256 = Display a progress dialog box but do not show the file names.
' 2048 = Version 4.71. Do not copy the security attributes of the file.
' 4096 = Only operate in the local directory. Don't operate recursively into subdirectories.
WScript.Echo "copying files..."
zip.CopyHere d.items, 4
' wait until finished
sLoop = 0
Do Until d.Items.Count <= zip.Items.Count
Wscript.Sleep(1000)
Loop
End Sub
COM also allws you to use DotNetZip, which is a free download, that does password-encrypted zips, zip64, Self-extracting archives, unicode, spanned zips, and other things.
Personally I use VCL Zip which runs with D2009 and D2010 perfectly fine. it does cost $120 at the time of this post but is very simple, flexible and most of all FAST.
Have a look at VCLZIP and download the trail if your interested
code wise:
VCLZip1.ZipName := ‘myfiles.zip’;
VCLZip1.FilesList.add(‘c:\mydirectory\*.*’);
VCLZip1.Zip;
is all you need for a basic zip, you can of course set compression levels, directory structures, zip streams, unzip streams and much more.
Hope this is of some assistance.
RE
Take a look at this OpenSource SynZip unit. It's even faster for decompression than the default unit shipped with Delphi, and it will generate a smaller exe (crc tables are created at startup).
No external dll is needed. Works from Delphi 6 up to XE. No problem with Unicode version of Delphi. All in a single unit.
I just made some changes to handle Unicode file names inside Zip content, not only Win-Ansi charset but any Unicode chars. Feedback is welcome.