Document version: 1.0.2

Updated: 03-03-2007 17:28:20

Author: B S Walia (Daybook Limited) 

1          Introduction

1.1       System requirements

2          Preferences

2.1       Core preferences

2.2       Personal preferences

3.         PDF reports storage

4.         Super reports

Section 1: Introduction

Section 1.1: System Requirements

Daybook Enterprise 6.2 or above (Single user or multi-user system)

Windows NT, 2000, 2003 and XP with PDF995 printer driver with free converter
(http://www.pdf995.com)

Mac OS X 10.1 onwards, using the built-in PDF facility.

Please note Mac users do not need PDF995 or any other PDF generation utility as Daybook uses Quartz library built-in to Mac OS X to generate PDF reports.

Section 2: Preferences

A new menu item is available under Data Manager/Preferences: PDF Print Configuration. (Please note this section is only applicable to Windows users and specific to PDF995). From this menu item the system can be set to print internal forms to PDF995. Following preferences

Windows users can setup the default PDF995 configuration file location in the Data Manager/Preferences/Documents. The PDF995 configuration can also be set from a Personnel record if different from default path set in the Data Manager. This is useful if the PDF995 file path is different for some users but the same for most. See “PDF Configuration” menu item in Personal record for each users.

Section 2.1: Core Preferences

User Interface elements for the core preferences for PDF reports can be configured from Core->Preferences->Documents.

PDF Configuration File: PD995 Configuration file path, which is the default path for all the machines. However this value can be reset as per machine and per user instead from Personal record for each user.

All the internal forms, which are available for PDF printing in Daybook, can be set to be printed on PDF and send via Email from these preferences.

See illustration below:

Section 2.2: Personal Print Preference

Following settings can be set per internal report:

File name:

Email from:

Email subject:

Email body:
 
Email fields are used to save the default email subject and text, which will go out with the attachment.

Output folder field is optional and can be used to save a copy of the PDF report on each user machine. Please note each report, which is emailed a diary item, is created with a document attached and actual document is saved on the server so that any user can view the report at later stage.

See illustration below:

Note: The PDF Configuration is saved per machine. If any user logs in from different machine for a day or so it will not override their existing PDF configuration from their original machine.

Section 3: PDF reports storage

Section 4: SuperReports

The SuperReport editor has a tab area, which enables Daybook users to enter report print preferences. In this section user can define the PDF print settings. Print preferences defined here will be saved for all users using a report. This behaviour can be changed to work per user per report if required at a later stage.

Main user interface elements in the print setting are:

A group of radio buttons:
Print – Checked by default
Generate PDF – Not checked by default
Checkbox Email – Checked only if Generate PDF is checked

Email From : String 80
Email To: String 80
Subject: Text
Email Body: Text

See illustration below:

* File name above can contain special tokens which will resolve the values from data while creating the file name. For example if user wanted to create PDF attachment file name with the reference number in the file name, user will define file name in the field above, something like “Booking<BookingCode>” which will create PDF report with name “Booking12345670” where 12345670 is a booking code in this case. Of course for Invoices file name field may contain “Invoice<InvoiceNo>” which will create PDF copy of the Invoice with file name “Invoice12345670” assuming Invoice Number is 12345670. See list of other useful tokens below:

• <DDMMYEAR> will add date in format 31122006
• <MMDDYEAR> will add date in format 12312006
• <YEARMMDD> will add date in format 20071231
• <MMYEAR> will add date in format 122007
• <YEARMM> will add date in format 200712
  
• <DDMMYY> will add date in format 311206
  
• <MMDDYY> will add date in format 200712
• <YYMMDD> will add date in format 071231
  
• <MMYY> will add month and year in format 1207
  
• <YYMM> will add year and month in format 0712
  
• <Month> will add month name like January
  
• <ContactCode> will add contact code
  
• <CompanyCode> will add company code
  
• <InvoiceNo> will add Invoice no
  
• <BookingCode> will add booking code
  
• <OrderCode> will add order code
  
• <OrderNo> will add order no
  
• <PurchaseOrderNo> will add purchase order no
  
• <PurchaseInvoiceNo> will add purchase invoice no
  
• <PurchasesCode> OR <PurchaseCode> will add purchase code
  

Section 5: Emails

Emails will be saved in the Documents table with and the attachments will be stored on the server as per above path. A diary item will also be created before sending the email so that it can be accessed later on via Diary interface.

Sending PDF using built-in Daybook Email Client Interface

Print menu which is used to print reports to the printer is modified to allow Daybook users to print to PDF and send email, For example in this sample Sales Order Authorization Print Menu is selected and Daybook should throw a confirm dialog like this:

An output email may look like below: (Note: In this sample Sales Order Authorization Print Menu is selected):

In the above illustration please note Daybook does all the work, It generate PDF automatically without any print dialogs, generates the email report recipients, subject and email body with signature. And of course email with the PDF will be stored in the system as a record of this activity. PDF report sent action is recorded in the Diary and PDF can also be viewed from the Diary anytime.

Note for Windows users using PDF995:

Please note that the PDF995 configuration set for other applications in the printer preferences is not overridden by Daybook. In other words PDF995 can be used from other applications like a word processor to generate PDF and Daybook will keep a record of configuration file for other applications. However, please note that testing of all functions must be performed in an actual user environment before putting on a live system. Daybook sets the default printer to PDF995 before generating PDF on Windows. It should also reset the default back to whatever it was before, after the PDF is generated. Please note that in certain installations of Windows PDF995 the printer will not generate PDF as expected, because of permission errors. Please refer to http://www.pdf995.com or ask your system administrator for more information about permissions.