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JS Open print dialog page to print a pdf file [duplicate]

I know how to open a webpage in a new window and add javascript so the print dialog pops up. Is there a way to do a similar thing with a PDF file?

Yes you can...
PDFs have Javascript support. I needed to have auto print capabilities when a PHP-generated PDF was created and I was able to use FPDF to get it to work:
http://www.fpdf.org/en/script/script36.php

I usually do something similar to the approach given by How to Use JavaScript to Print a PDF (eHow.com), using an iframe.
a function to house the print trigger...
function printTrigger(elementId) {
var getMyFrame = document.getElementById(elementId);
getMyFrame.focus();
getMyFrame.contentWindow.print();
}
an button to give the user access...
(an onClick on an a or button or input or whatever you wish)
<input type="button" value="Print" onclick="printTrigger('iFramePdf');" />
an iframe pointing to your PDF...
<iframe id="iFramePdf" src="myPdfUrl.pdf" style="display:none;"></iframe>
Bonus Idea #1 - Create the iframe and add it to your page within the printTrigger(); so that the PDF isn't loaded until the user clicks your "Print" button, then the javascript can attack! the iframe and trigger the print dialog.
Bonus Idea #2 - Extra credit if you disable your "Print" button and give the user a little loading spinner or something after they click it, so that they know something's in process instead of clicking it repeatedly!

Just figured out how to do this within the PDF itself - if you have acrobat pro, go to your pages tab, right click on the thumbnail for the first page, and click page properties. Click on the actions tab at the top of the window and under select trigger choose page open. Under select action choose "run a javascript". Then in the javascript window, type this:
this.print({bUI: false, bSilent: true, bShrinkToFit: true});
This will print your document without a dialogue to the default printer on your machine. If you want the print dialog, just change bUI to true, bSilent to false, and optionally, remove the shrink to fit parameter.
Auto-printing PDF!

I use named action instead of javascript because javascript often is disabled, and if it isn't it gives a warning.
My web application creates a postscript file that then is converted with ghostscript to a pdf. I want it to print automatically because the user has already clicked on print inside my application. With the information about named actions from #DSimon above, I researched how to solve this. It all boils down to insert the string /Type /Action /S /Named /N /Print at the right place in the pdf.
I was thinking of writing a small utility, but it has to parse the pdf to find the root node, insert /OpenAction with a reference an object with the action, and recalculate the byte-offsets in xref.
But then I found out about pdfmark which is an extension to postscript to express, in postscript syntax, idioms that are converted to pdf by Adobes distiller or by ghostscript.
Since I'm already using ghostscript, all I have to do is append the following to the end of my postscript file:
%AUTOPRINT
[ /_objdef {PrintAction} /type /dict /OBJ pdfmark
[ {PrintAction} << /Type /Action /S /Named /N /Print >> /PUT pdfmark
[ {Catalog} << /OpenAction {PrintAction} >> /PUT pdfmark
and ghostscript will create the action, link it, and calculate the xref offsets. (In postscript % is a comment and PrintAction is my name for the object)
By looking at the PDF I see that it has created this:
1 0 obj
<</Type /Catalog /Pages 3 0 R
/OpenAction 9 0 R
/Metadata 10 0 R
>>
endobj
9 0 obj
<</S/Named
/Type/Action
/N/Print>>endobj
1 0 is object 1, revision 0, and 9 0 is object 9, revision 0. In the pdf-trailer is says that it is object 1 that is the root node. As you can see there is a reference from object 1, /OpenAction to run object 9 revision 0.
With ghostscript it's possible to convert a pdf to postscript (pdf2ps), append the text above, and convert it back to pdf with ps2pdf. It should be noted that meta-information about the pdf is lost in this conversion. I haven't searched more into this.

Embed code example:
<object type="application/pdf" data="example.pdf" width="100%" height="100%" id="examplePDF" name="examplePDF"><param name='src' value='example.pdf'/></object>
<script>
examplePDF.printWithDialog();
</script>
May have to fool around with the ids/names.
Using adobe reader...

If you know how PDF files are structured (or are willing to spend a little while reading the spec), you can do it this way.
Use the Named Action "Print" in the OpenAction field of the Catalog object; the "Print" action is undocumented, but Acrobat Reader and most of the other major readers understand it. A nice benefit of this approach is that you don't get any JavaScript warnings. See here for details: http://www.gnostice.com/nl_article.asp?id=157
To make it even shinier, I added a second Action, URI, directing the reader to go back to the page that originated the request. Then I attached this Action to the first Named action using its Next field. With content disposition set to "inline", this makes it so that when the user clicks on the print link:
It opens up Adobe Reader in the same tab and loads the file
It immediately shows the print dialog
As soon as the Print dialog is closed (whether they hit "OK" or "cancel"), the browser tab goes back to the webpage
I was able to do all these changes in Ruby easily enough using only the File and IO modules; I opened the PDF I had generated with an external tool, followed the xref to the existing Catalog section, then appended a new section onto the PDF with an updated Catalog object containing my special OpenAction line, and also the new Action objects.
Because of PDF's incremental revision features, you don't have to make any changes to the existing data to do this, just append an additional section to the end.

Why not use the Actions menu option to set this?
Do the following: If you have Acrobat Pro, go to your pages tab, right click on the thumbnail for the first page, and click page properties. Click on the actions tab at the top of the window and under select trigger choose page open. Under select action choose 'Execute a menu item'. Click the Add button then select 'File > Print' then OK. Click OK again and save the PDF.

If you are using the prawn gem for Ruby on Rails to generate your PDF, you can use the following additional gem to active the print dialog:
prawn-print

Another solution:
<input type="button" value="Print" onclick="document.getElementById('PDFtoPrint').focus(); document.getElementById('PDFtoPrint').contentWindow.print();">

if you embed the pdf in your webpage and reference the object id, you should be able to do it.
eg.
in your HTML:
<object ID="examplePDF" type="application/pdf" data="example.pdf" width="500" height="500">
in your javascript:
<script>
var pdf = document.getElementById("examplePDF");
pdf.print();
</script>
I hope that helps.

Autofill Text box on a Web Page (Javascript/VBScript)

I really need to know how I can autofill text boxes on a web page.
What I really want to achieve is the following:
1) Go to http://show.websudoku.com
2) Replace all the empty cells with a 0 (zero).
Is that possible?

To fill the empty spaces of the Sudoku grid at http://show.websudoku.com with zero's, here is some JavaScript to do that. It is formatted for use as a "Bookmarklet":
javascript:(function(){var x,k,f,j,r;x=document.forms;for(k=0;k<x.length;++k){f=x[k];for(j=0;j<f.length;++j){r=(f[j].className.toLowerCase()+f[j].type.toLowerCase()+f[j].value);if(r=="d0text"){f[j].value="0";}else if(r=="d0text0"){f[j].value="";}}}})();
The setup:
Create a new Bookmark/Favorite. For now, the URL for the favorite can be anything. An easy way to do this is to drag ANY link/url from the browser address bar, or any web-page link, to the "Favorites Bar" or to the Bookmarks/Favorites sidebar.
Select the new favorite, and rename it to any name you like.
Copy the JavaScript code from above to the clipboard. It must remain as 1 continuous single line, and it must begin with "javascript:(" and end with ")();"
Edit the properties of the new favorite.
Remove the "URL" that is currently in the favorite and replace it by pasting in the JavaScript code from above, into the "URL" text field for the favorite, then save the changes.
To use the bookmarklet:
From the browser, navigate to http://show.websudoku.com as you normally would.
Click the new favorite (Bookmarklet) that you just edited.
All empty spaces in the Sudoku grid will be filled with 0's. Click the new favorite (Bookmarklet) again, and the 0's will be removed leaving empty spaces once again.
Here is what the Javascript code looks like expanded, with indents:
javascript:(function(){
var x,k,f,j,r;
x=document.forms;
for(k=0;k<x.length;++k){
f=x[k];
for(j=0;j<f.length;++j){
r=(f[j].className.toLowerCase()+f[j].type.toLowerCase()+f[j].value);
if(r=="d0text"){
f[j].value="0";
}
else if(r=="d0text0"){
f[j].value="";
}
}
}
}
)();
* Spoiler alert *
In case you want to "cheat", the JavaScript here will "solve" the Sudoku:
javascript:(function(){var x,k,f,j,ecl,etl,en,ev,s,e,c,d,dl,dr,n;x=document.forms;for(k=0;k<x.length;++k){f=x[k];for(j=0;j<f.length;++j){e=f[j];r=(e.name.toLowerCase());if(r=="cheat"){c=e.value;break;}}for(j=0;j<f.length;++j){e=f[j];ecl=e.className.toLowerCase();etl=e.type.toLowerCase();en=e.name;ev=e.value;if(etl=="text"){if(ecl=="d0"){dr=en.substr(en.length-1,1);dl=en.substr(en.length-2,1);d=(((Number(dr)-1)*9)+Number(dl))-1;n=c.substr(d,1);if(ev.length==0){e.value=n;}else{e.value="";}}}}}})();
Setup and use is the same as described above.
While it's not much fun to solve it like that (OK, maybe it's a little fun the first couple times), and definitely not challenging, if you are in a real-real-real hurry, you can solve it in 1 click.
Note: I have only tested these 2 bookmarklets with IE9.

Javascript function results in HTML page reload: why?

Newbie question...
The objective:
I intend to have an HTML text input field as a kind of command line input.
An unordered HTML list shows the 5 most recent commands. Clicking on one of the last commands in this list should populate the command line input text field with the respective command (in order to re-execute or modify it).
An unordered HTML list contains a result set. Clicking on an ID in this list should bring the respective ID into the command line input text field.
In HTML (DHTML):
Works as expected: when clicking on the the link the command line input text field is populated with a recent command.
<li>here would be one of the recent commands</li>
In Javascript file:
Doesn't work as expected: when clicking on the the link the command-line-input-text-field gets populated with the respective value (as it should), BUT then it seems like the full HTML page is being reloaded, the text input field and all dynamically populated lists become empty.
function exec_cmd(cli_input_str) {
// a lot of code ...
// the code that should provide similar behavior as onclick=... in the DHTML example
$('.spa_id_href').click(function(){document.getElementById('cli_input').value = document.getElementById('cli_input').value + this.firstChild.nodeValue;});
}
Now the Question:
Besides a potential Javascript (syntax) error, what could cause the browser to reload the page?

In both cases, you do nothing to cancel the default function of clicking on a link.
In the plain HTML example, the link to the top of the page is followed.
You don't specify what the href attribute for the second example looks like, but whatever it is, it will be followed.
See http://icant.co.uk/articles/pragmatic-progressive-enhancement/ for a good explanation of event cancelling and good event design. See http://docs.jquery.com/Tutorials:How_jQuery_Works for some jQuery specific guidance.

Change
$('.spa_id_href').click(function(){...
to
$('.spa_id_href').click(function(evt){...//notice the evt param
and in the function, call
evt.preventDefault();

It seems that you just follow the link target URL. That is because you do not prevent the default click action:
e.preventDefault(); // `e` is the object passed to the event handler
// or
return false
Alternatively, you can set up a href starting with #, or not use <a> element at all (use <span style="cursor:pointer"> instead) — if it’s not a real link of course.

It's basically related to event cancelling...
Try this:
try { (
e || window.event).preventDefault();
}
catch( ex )
{
/* do Nothing */
}

While the other answers here make excellent points about canceling events, you will still run into problems if your JavaScript contains errors which prevent your event-canceling code from being run. (As might be the case if you're, say, debugging your code.
As an additional precaution, I strongly recommend you not use href="#" on links which only trigger scripts. Instead, use the void operator:
...
The reason for this is: when the event is not canceled, the browser will attempt to load the URL supplied by the href attribute. The javascript: "protocol" tells the browser to instead use the value of the accompanying code unless that value is undefined. The void operator exists explicitly to return undefined, so the browser stays on the existing page — with no reload/refresh — allowing you to continue debugging your script.
This also allows you to skip the entire event-canceling mess for JS-only links (though you will still need to cancel events in code attached to links which have a "fallback" URL for non-JS clients).

Can a PDF file's print dialog be opened with Javascript?

I know how to open a webpage in a new window and add javascript so the print dialog pops up. Is there a way to do a similar thing with a PDF file?

Yes you can...
PDFs have Javascript support. I needed to have auto print capabilities when a PHP-generated PDF was created and I was able to use FPDF to get it to work:
http://www.fpdf.org/en/script/script36.php

I usually do something similar to the approach given by How to Use JavaScript to Print a PDF (eHow.com), using an iframe.
a function to house the print trigger...
function printTrigger(elementId) {
var getMyFrame = document.getElementById(elementId);
getMyFrame.focus();
getMyFrame.contentWindow.print();
}
an button to give the user access...
(an onClick on an a or button or input or whatever you wish)
<input type="button" value="Print" onclick="printTrigger('iFramePdf');" />
an iframe pointing to your PDF...
<iframe id="iFramePdf" src="myPdfUrl.pdf" style="display:none;"></iframe>
Bonus Idea #1 - Create the iframe and add it to your page within the printTrigger(); so that the PDF isn't loaded until the user clicks your "Print" button, then the javascript can attack! the iframe and trigger the print dialog.
Bonus Idea #2 - Extra credit if you disable your "Print" button and give the user a little loading spinner or something after they click it, so that they know something's in process instead of clicking it repeatedly!

Just figured out how to do this within the PDF itself - if you have acrobat pro, go to your pages tab, right click on the thumbnail for the first page, and click page properties. Click on the actions tab at the top of the window and under select trigger choose page open. Under select action choose "run a javascript". Then in the javascript window, type this:
this.print({bUI: false, bSilent: true, bShrinkToFit: true});
This will print your document without a dialogue to the default printer on your machine. If you want the print dialog, just change bUI to true, bSilent to false, and optionally, remove the shrink to fit parameter.
Auto-printing PDF!

I use named action instead of javascript because javascript often is disabled, and if it isn't it gives a warning.
My web application creates a postscript file that then is converted with ghostscript to a pdf. I want it to print automatically because the user has already clicked on print inside my application. With the information about named actions from #DSimon above, I researched how to solve this. It all boils down to insert the string /Type /Action /S /Named /N /Print at the right place in the pdf.
I was thinking of writing a small utility, but it has to parse the pdf to find the root node, insert /OpenAction with a reference an object with the action, and recalculate the byte-offsets in xref.
But then I found out about pdfmark which is an extension to postscript to express, in postscript syntax, idioms that are converted to pdf by Adobes distiller or by ghostscript.
Since I'm already using ghostscript, all I have to do is append the following to the end of my postscript file:
%AUTOPRINT
[ /_objdef {PrintAction} /type /dict /OBJ pdfmark
[ {PrintAction} << /Type /Action /S /Named /N /Print >> /PUT pdfmark
[ {Catalog} << /OpenAction {PrintAction} >> /PUT pdfmark
and ghostscript will create the action, link it, and calculate the xref offsets. (In postscript % is a comment and PrintAction is my name for the object)
By looking at the PDF I see that it has created this:
1 0 obj
<</Type /Catalog /Pages 3 0 R
/OpenAction 9 0 R
/Metadata 10 0 R
>>
endobj
9 0 obj
<</S/Named
/Type/Action
/N/Print>>endobj
1 0 is object 1, revision 0, and 9 0 is object 9, revision 0. In the pdf-trailer is says that it is object 1 that is the root node. As you can see there is a reference from object 1, /OpenAction to run object 9 revision 0.
With ghostscript it's possible to convert a pdf to postscript (pdf2ps), append the text above, and convert it back to pdf with ps2pdf. It should be noted that meta-information about the pdf is lost in this conversion. I haven't searched more into this.

Embed code example:
<object type="application/pdf" data="example.pdf" width="100%" height="100%" id="examplePDF" name="examplePDF"><param name='src' value='example.pdf'/></object>
<script>
examplePDF.printWithDialog();
</script>
May have to fool around with the ids/names.
Using adobe reader...

If you know how PDF files are structured (or are willing to spend a little while reading the spec), you can do it this way.
Use the Named Action "Print" in the OpenAction field of the Catalog object; the "Print" action is undocumented, but Acrobat Reader and most of the other major readers understand it. A nice benefit of this approach is that you don't get any JavaScript warnings. See here for details: http://www.gnostice.com/nl_article.asp?id=157
To make it even shinier, I added a second Action, URI, directing the reader to go back to the page that originated the request. Then I attached this Action to the first Named action using its Next field. With content disposition set to "inline", this makes it so that when the user clicks on the print link:
It opens up Adobe Reader in the same tab and loads the file
It immediately shows the print dialog
As soon as the Print dialog is closed (whether they hit "OK" or "cancel"), the browser tab goes back to the webpage
I was able to do all these changes in Ruby easily enough using only the File and IO modules; I opened the PDF I had generated with an external tool, followed the xref to the existing Catalog section, then appended a new section onto the PDF with an updated Catalog object containing my special OpenAction line, and also the new Action objects.
Because of PDF's incremental revision features, you don't have to make any changes to the existing data to do this, just append an additional section to the end.

Why not use the Actions menu option to set this?
Do the following: If you have Acrobat Pro, go to your pages tab, right click on the thumbnail for the first page, and click page properties. Click on the actions tab at the top of the window and under select trigger choose page open. Under select action choose 'Execute a menu item'. Click the Add button then select 'File > Print' then OK. Click OK again and save the PDF.

If you are using the prawn gem for Ruby on Rails to generate your PDF, you can use the following additional gem to active the print dialog:
prawn-print

Another solution:
<input type="button" value="Print" onclick="document.getElementById('PDFtoPrint').focus(); document.getElementById('PDFtoPrint').contentWindow.print();">

if you embed the pdf in your webpage and reference the object id, you should be able to do it.
eg.
in your HTML:
<object ID="examplePDF" type="application/pdf" data="example.pdf" width="500" height="500">
in your javascript:
<script>
var pdf = document.getElementById("examplePDF");
pdf.print();
</script>
I hope that helps.

Calling a javascript file (.js) via Excel VBA?

How to call a javascript file (.js) via Excel VBA?
So as i am opposed to the same kind of problem i'll try to submit you guys my case.
I am trying to automate datas extraction from valeo's catalogue using excel vba macro.
I have a list of références attached to valeo's automotive products (huge list, as more than 3000 thousands items). And i would like to import directly informations from the catalogue wich seems to run under javascript.
The datas i need is the list of every vehicules attached to a reference.
Here is the url: http://outcat-cs.tecdoc.net/ows/en/7FA2A0C501BC34CA4BECB04095663CF1.ows_cs2.srv?view=VIndexFramesetJsp
I'd like to access to the "Direct Article Search" tab, in order to copy a reference directly from an excel tab's cell and then simulate a clic on the reference in order to display the "linked vehicules section" and then to copy them in a new excel sheet.
I already succeede in doing this with html pure programmed webpage (oscaro.com) using the following code :
Set maPageHtml = IE.document
Set Helem = maPageHtml.getElementsByTagName("input")
For i = 0 To Helem.Length - 1
If Helem(i).getAttribute("name") = "toFind" Then Helem(i).Value = "819971" '819971 is the valeo reference searched
If Helem(i).getAttribute("name") = "submit" Then Set Monbouton = Helem(i)
Next
Monbouton.Click 'this does the click on my button Monbouton
But this technique can't be used with valeo website since I am not able (or at least I don't know yet how to do it) to select/click a button when the page is made on javascript, since it doesn't have a name, value or id for the button.
Also it seems that the url in the address field is the same before clicking on the "Direct Article Search" button and after having clicked....
Hope i am clear enought in spite of my english...
Greetings

All the previously suggested approaches sound hacky to me.
For a more reliable solution, embed the Javascript in a COM component via Windows Script Components, and call the Javascript-based COM component as you would any other COM component.

I don't think that there is a direct way to run JavaScript code in VBA.
What you could try to do is to embed the JavaScript code in an HTML form which you could open in a (hidden) browser control. Then fill the form controls via the DOM of the browser control and submit the form. The submit triggers the JavaScript function that you want to call.
Sample (not tested):
VBA:
oIE.Document.frmMain.param1.Value = 5
oIE.Document.frmMain.param2.Value = "6"
oIE.Document.frmMain.submit.click ' this line will call the JavaScript function
HTML:
<div id="submit" > Do Action</div>
<script>
function doAction()
{
// do whatever the code should do
}
</script>

You mean through windows scripting host?
You can shell (use the shell command) out to wscript.exe with the name of the .js file.
But this javascript object model won't be like the one you get in the browser.
It would be helpful if you told us what the javascript was supposed to do.