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Repeat after me: @Functions are NOT for the web...

10/16/2007 11:02 PM by Chris Toohey

I won't go too much into this, but I was talking with a very competent developer this afternoon who asked me how I could get a form to pop-up in a new window, print, and then close said pop-up. This is a quick-and-simple trick, and I won't get into the argument on doing this via a CSS for "Print", but just state this: @Functions should NOT be used for functions on the web. This small feat can be achieved with some very low-level JavaScript and some forethought to application architecture - specifically, a view (we'll call it print) with a form formula to use a form (we'll call it printform) for the printing.

From your view, add the following to create a link/action to the view:


printlink := "<a href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onclick=\"window.open('/" + 
@WebDbName + "/print/" + @Text(@DocumentUniqueID) + 
"?OpenDocument','mywindow','status=1,width=350,height=150');\">print</a>
;";

Next, in the OnLoad for the printform, add the following two lines:


window.print();

window.close();

And there you have it - when clicked, the selected document will open in a popup window, auto-print, and then close itself!

For those of you interested in a sloppy, quickly-put-together demo, here ya go!

- Update -

I had to replace the download of this example - I accidentally enabled local encryption. And, for the record, I did mean that you should refrain from using @Formula for UI functions.

About the author: Chris Toohey

Thought Leadership, Web & Mobile Application Development, Solutions Integration, Technical Writing & Mentoring

A published developer and webmaster of dominoGuru.com, Chris Toohey specializes in platform application development, solutions integration, and evangelism of platform capabilities and best practices.