Printing Crystal Report on Client Side in ASP.NET C#

0
votes

I created an ASP.NET application where I print a Crystal Report report. The problem is that the report is printed at the Server Printer, and as it is a Web Application I need it to get printed at the client machine.

I am using the method PrintToPrinter(1, false, 0, 0) in order to print it without a crystal report viewer.

Does anybody knows if there is a way to have it printed on the client side? If not; what do you recommend to generate reports on the client side for ASP.Net applications?

3
c#asp.netprintingcrystal-reportsclient-side
It's been awhile since I did anything with Crystal, but see if it has an option to render the report to a PDF. You can then send that down to the client. It won't automatically print, but they'll be able to without Crystal installed, as long as they have a PDF viewer. – Matt Sieker

3 Answers

0
votes

Best way is to design a "HTML printable version" of your page with a link calling :

javascript:window.print();
0
votes

here is what you will need to do / try to get the report to print on the Client Machine

Below line opens up print dialog box to print without showing print preview

crystalReportViewer1.PrintReport();

Below line directly sends reportdocument to default printer.

oReportDocument.PrintToPrinter(1,true,0,0);
0
votes

The Crystal report viewer is a server side control, and it doesn't really provide an easy way to print to client. I have been able to achieve this in the past by exporting the report to PDF, then with a combination of an embedded PDF viewer and some JavaScript, print the PDF.

// On server side
// Export to PDF
Guid imageGuid = Guid.NewGuid();
string pdfName = String.Format(@"{0}{1}{2}.pdf", pdfPath, reportName, imageGuid);
// expport to unique filename
report.ExportToDisk(CrystalDecisions.Shared.ExportFormatType.PortableDocFormat, pdfName);

// Display the pdf object in a literal control (mine's called pdfLiteral)
sb.AppendFormat("<object ID=\"pdfObject\" type=\"application/pdf\" data=\"{0}\" src=\"{0}\" style=\"width: 2px; height: 2px; ", pdfName);
sb.AppendLine("z-index:1; display: block; top: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; \">");
sb.Append("</object>");
pdfLiteral.Text = sb.ToString();
pdfLiteral.Visible = true;

// client side
// on document load call the printWithDialog function
 var code = function(){
    var pdf = document.getElementById('pdfObject');
    if (pdf == null)
        return;
    try {
        pdf.printWithDialog();
    }
    catch (err) {
        alert('Please Install Adobe Acrobat reader to use this feature');
    }
  };
// window onload, with delay
window.setTimeout(code, 1000);

See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25994086/474702

Note: although this works well in Chrome, it only works in IE if the client has Acrobat reader installed as the default PDF viewer.