Cannot launch PDF in new 5.1 Viewer

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Rick.Allen
Posts: 23
Joined: 21 Jun 2012, 18:08

Love the new viewer. Much more responsive.

The buttons for Excel, CSV all work as expected however when I press the PDF button nothing happens. The logs provide no indication of any issues.

I am using standalone version with TomCat 7 under Windows 7.

What is missing?

Thank you.
Rick Allen
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Analyst
Hamilton Police Services, Ontario, Canada
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neil.walsh
Posts: 444
Joined: 16 Feb 2009, 13:45
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Hi Rick,

We've tried this with a various views and it works consistently for us. We have noticed with very large lists it can take a long time to generate (a couple of minutes). During this time, some browsers might show a message saying the script is unresponsive but choosing continue typically resolves this. Whether you see this message depends on the specific browser and machine.

We've just re-tested now using Chrome, Safari, Firefox and IE10 & IE11 generating a PDF with 184 pages. It took between 15 secs (Safari) to 90 secs (IE).

Can we ask a few questions to help resolve this?

Which view are you trying to test with?
How many objects are in the list / table you're trying to PDF (e.g. if App Catalogue how many apps do you have)?
Which browser are you using?

Thanks

Neil
Rick.Allen
Posts: 23
Joined: 21 Jun 2012, 18:08

Neil, the problem is for all views.

I picked one application and went to Info/Data summary
http://localhost:8080/essential_viewer_ ... pplication Info/Data Summary -Active Directory

with one row. Pressing PDF button does nothing.

Using IE 10.0.35
Adobe XI, v11.0.13
Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 64-bit

Regards, Rick
Rick Allen
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Analyst
Hamilton Police Services, Ontario, Canada
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neil.walsh
Posts: 444
Joined: 16 Feb 2009, 13:45
Contact:

Hi Rick,

I've just retested in IE10 and you're indeed correct that PDF functionality is unavailable in IE10. I had thought we'd tested this in IE10 but the browser on the dev box has (quietly) upgraded to IE11.

I've done a bit of digging about and it's an issue with a dependency further down the chain. We use a library called DataTables which provides the amazing functionality of scrolling, filtering and buttons. This in turn depends on a library called PDFMake which is where this issue is happening. A fix has been submitted but it will need to make its way across the various releases. If possible, we'll look to try and get fix in the next release (currently planned for Q2) if it's available and works as expected.

Failing that, we'll look to hide the functionality in IE10 so that users aren't confused by non-working features.

Finally, my understanding is that IE10 > IE11 upgrade is mandatory now and though you can postpone the upgrade, it is only for a short window. I always dislike suggesting you try another browser as in a corporate environment that isn't always possible but for now at least, it may be the only option until this is patched properly.

Thanks for the feedback though, it's how we make Essential even better.

Cheers

Neil
Rick.Allen
Posts: 23
Joined: 21 Jun 2012, 18:08

Neil, upgrading to IE11 did work.

Thank you.
Rick Allen
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Analyst
Hamilton Police Services, Ontario, Canada
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neil.walsh
Posts: 444
Joined: 16 Feb 2009, 13:45
Contact:

Hi Rick,

Are you getting any Javascript errors on the page?

Click F12 to bring up the developer tools and look at the console.

If you can copy and paste any errors showing up there then that would be useful.

Additionally, on IE11 is it broken everywhere for you? For example, does it work on the Application Service Catalogue? If you have a lot of objects and a slow machine, it can take a while to generate (e.g. 2-3 minutes). An App Service Catalogue would normally on have tens of objects and therefore is a good test (5-30 seconds depending on machine).

Thanks for the feedback

Neil
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neil.walsh
Posts: 444
Joined: 16 Feb 2009, 13:45
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Sorry Rick, misread your post. Glad it's working now for you in IE11

Cheers,

Neil
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