Print/Export as PDF with preset filename?

Hi all,
i’m playing with the print function and ask myself if i can give a preset filename to the dialog (from Tulip variables)?
I fear that this will not work, because I am accessing a system dialog, but I hope for a positive possibility :slight_smile:
Regards
Chris

hello @ChrisF, I’m afraid you cannot currently define the filename for the Step (or Steps) you’re printing; i have however communicated this with the Product team to investigate its feasibility.

we’ll keep you posted with updates.

gio

Hey Chris, I am a product manager at Tulip and I can help with this. Hmm, you are correct, we would need to rebuild this whole flow to make saving PDFs with a preset name easier. Are you hoping to save the file locally, or would it be better to send it somewhere via email or store it in the cloud?

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Hi Kevin,
sorry for the delay…

Sendig by eMail or storing locally would be appreciated

Regards
Chris

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Okay, sounds good. I will review this with our engineering team and reply here when we have an idea on how we might solve this.

the print or export as PDF works well, if i’m using the blank template as picture.
It does not looks like a perfect template, because the checkboxes have a border and colored background, but it works :slight_smile:

Regards
Chris

Hello everyone,

I am scanning the Tulip Community to see if it’s possible to send PDF’s through e-mail with Tulip, is this a possibility yet? Thank you.

@kevin.kononenko Hi Kevin,

Good day,

i am also having issues on PDF to email via tulip, is there any update of post that you can share to us.

thank you
regards,
Baboo

Hey @ashchav20 and @baboobalan -

Sorry for the delay on this one - this request has been stuck behind a few others for far too long.

There are a few major hurdles in solving this one-

  1. Right now you can print a step as a pdf, but that is handled by the operating system print functions, so the file it generates isn’t something Tulip has access to, to send it out.
  2. To resolve this, we would need to do all the rendering of the player screen within Tulip Player before passing it to the operating system print dialog.
  3. Once we bring that rendering into player, we need to develop a new datatype for files.
  4. Finally, we need to support this datatype across the product, including in tables.

There is work going on right now to enable files to be stored in tables, and this is really the first step to making this functionality possible (step 4 above). From there we are planning on being able to write files to those tables from apps, (step 3) and from there, we could re-evaluate email/print functionality to allow these files to be used as attachments (step 1/2). I would expect to see some of those first changes hitting in Q2/Q3, but wouldn’t expect attachments to be supported in email triggers in 2022.

None the less - Bumping this topic is how you get eyes on it and we are always adjusting our roadmap to match customer needs. Keep us accountable and I will make sure it impacts the product roadmap!

Pete

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Hi Pete,
any (good) news?
We are waiting for the possibility to create internal PDFs and store them into a Tulip table or external file system.
The system printing dialog is not usefull, because Tulip can’t send any information to the dialog ($FilePath oder $FileName).
Regards Chris

Hey @ChrisF -

Making some good progress toward this right now. Files in tables were formally launched about 2 months ago, along with the ability to upload files (including PDFs from the local file system from Tulip apps).

The last piece of this puzzle is allowing the print step function to be stored to a file variable, as opposed to opening up the print modal. This is an open feature request, but not one actively being worked on. There is some work scheduled for early 2023 to add more functionality to files in tables (like adding more file support, more native integration to widgets, etc) and this one will likely be tackled in that work.

Pete

Hi @Pete_Hartnett,

I am also interested in the progress here. Do you have news when this feature is supposed to come?

  • storing the printed step´s PDF into Tulip tables
  • storing PDF´s into specific folders with a filename

Thanks
Julian

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