PDF functionality is needed for the below features:
- Email Project Booking Report
- Email Invoice PDF Attachment > from Invoice Manager using Mail and Mark as Sent
- Dispatch PDF Notification Email (EMT feature. Enabled in Toolbox > Settings > Server Setup > Dispatch Module)
- For Web Users to print Object or User Report from Web or iOS (web profile permission Shared Monthly/Date Based Reports)
- For Web users to print Day-plan reports (web profile permission Shared Day-plan Reports)
N.B If you are using a version of farmerswife older that 6.6 release, please skip to Installing & configuring the PDF Writer on versions older than 6.6 release (rev18918)
Configuring the PDF Printer in farmerswife Server Setup
- Log out all connected Users from the Server.
- Go into SETUP > GENERAL and set ENABLE PDF PRINTING to YES.
- Click in the grey bar under PDF REPOSITORY DIRECTORY, and select a folder location for the temporary storage of PDFs on the server (You may want to set up a new folder on your server specifically for this).
This folder is intended for server-side usage and PDF print outs will only be stored temporarily. Files will be deleted by the fw server when a server print is successful. If the server print fails, the file will remain in the repository folder. A full repository folder could indicate an issue with the process, e.g. the server is not sending invoices. - Do a Test Print by clicking on the TEST button. If successful, a prompt will appear to say so.
Installing & Configuring the PDF Writer on versions older than 6.6 release (rev18918)
The below instructions are ONLY valid on farmerswife v6.6 Beta versions older than 6.6 Release rev. 18918.
As of 6.6 Release a new "Built-in Printer" has been implemented, which does NOT require any additional installation of any kind.
N.B. If you are using a version of farmerswife older than 6.7 SP1 (as of Feb 2022) and would like to upgrade, please contact farmerswife support via [email protected]
Windows:
To install on a Windows machine, please follow the link here Install Ghostscript Writer
Mac:
- Download and install PDFWriter package by double clicking and follow the installation instructions.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfwriterformac/
- Once installed and only if you are on El Capitan or later:
- Go to system preferences Printers and Scanners pane.
- Click the Plus sign to add a printer and select PDFwriter:
- In the Use: field it defaults to Generic PostScript Printer - (if this doesn't work- use the drop down and choose "Other")
- Now you have a file dialog box, navigate to /Library/Printers/Lisanet/PDFwriter/PDFwriter.ppd and click the Open button:
- You are back in the Add printer dialog box, click the Add button and you are done!
- Make a test print (to create the repository folder): print any document as PDF with PDFwriter
To configure the PDF Printer:
- Log out all connected Users from the Server.
- Go into “Setup” > General > Enable PDF Printing: Set 'Enabled" to YES.
- Click on the selector bar next to ‘Default Printer’ and choose: PDFwriter.
- Then click on the grey bar to select the PDF Repository folder: use SHIFT+CMD+G and type:
“/private” in the entry field > then browse to /private/var/spool/pdfwriter/username.
* (The folder only appears if you previously made a test print using the PDFwriter)
If for some reason the private folder is greyed out and you can’t click on it, search here: User/Shared/pdf writer.
Once selected in the entry field the link updates to the above mentioned link (/private/var/spool/pdfwriter/username) automatically.
This folder is intended for server-side usage. Pdf print outs will be stored just temporarily. Files will be deleted by the fw server if process is successful. If the process fails, the file remains in the folder. A full folder could indicate, that there is a problem with the process,e.g. sending invoices. - In the next steps click to set the Page Setup (PDF size, portrait/ landscape, A4/ Letter…), click OK.
- And click to set the Printer Settings to set the default PDF Printer Settings (print on page, multiple pages etc.), click Print.
- Do a Test Print by clicking on the Test button.
