Re: Any example available to print a PDF stored in database

We had similar drama before we discovered PDF-direct hardware. After that, drama on desktop printers disappeared.

PDF-direct printers (we use only HP) are common and rarely ever advertised as a feature. We bought a cheap ($120) laser printer at BestBuy for our own office (in I.T.) simply to test that theory and we were stunned that it worked perfectly the first time. We essentially swapped out or old 15-year-old HP printer with this new one with zero changes on the AS400 and using PRTSTMF it worked fine first try.

Toner cartridges for some of our old HP printers cost almost as much as these new HP printers. So we are essentially (and slowly) replacing all our printers with those same $120 HP network printers. That way, our AS400 can serve .PDF output files to any printer without getting Windows involved. It’s actually been a huge release of stress for not just I.T., but also for our users, many of whom have given us praise for simplifying things because of it.

I get where you’re coming from. Thankfully, management was completely on board budget-wise after they saw the improvement in productivity that PDF-direct enabled. We wanted to get away from Windows (i.e. Microsoft) constantly throwing a monkey wrench in the machinery.

The Zebra PDF-Direct involved tiny drama (especially the pricing) but once they were up and running, they run themselves. :)

Old, unsupported hardware just wasn’t worth it for us. We were spending way too much time and resources baby-sitting obsolete hardware that enough was enough.

Our PDF printing from our AS400 prints fast. May have JPG images and fancy graphics and barcodes. Goodbye to *IPDS printers and the such. I always hated those.

Hope this helps.

On Sep 7, 2018, at 4:33 PM, Justin Taylor <JUSTIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Your experience contrasts sharply from mine. Windows-only PDF's (IBMi, Android and iPhone choke), full 8.5x11 documents that must be scaled to print, printers that take 1-2 minutes per page and unsupported printers. Yuk.

-----Original Message-----
From: Eddie Gomez [mailto:gmon750@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2018 12:22 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Any example available to print a PDF stored in database

We store our .PDF files on the IFS. We print our .PDF’s directly from our AS400 with no problem. Like anything IBM, there is a trick.

I print .PDF’s from the IFS using the PRTSTMF developed by Scott Klement.

The “trick” is that in order to print it to a printer, the printer must natively support PDF-Direct. We discovered that most CURRENT off-the-shelf HP printers support PDF-Direct. So once we configured our new $120 HP laser jet printer as a standard 3812 printer, PRTSTMF to that printer output queue works like a charm.

We use this method countless times per day, not just for 8.5x11” paper stock, but also to generate PDF 4x6 shipping labels and print to a Zebra printer which also supports PDF-direct. Works great. It worked so well, we are removing our old HP laser printers that are 10+ years old, and replacing them with new, cheap HP printers right from BestBuy that support PDF-Direct. Our users have been in ecstatic since then.

Hope this helps.

Eddie

On Sep 7, 2018, at 10:12 AM, Justin Taylor <JUSTIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You'll almost certainly need to read the BLOB into an IFS file. From there, there are a number of options. Personally, I've found them to be varying degrees of disappointing, but YMMV.

Options for Printing PDF Stream Files which are Stored in the Integrated File System (IFS):
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas8N1018851

Good luck,



-----Original Message-----
From: Mohammad Tanveer [mailto:surgum@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2018 4:12 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
<rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Any example available to print a PDF stored in database

Is there any example to create a spool file for a PDF stored in a database table BLOB field? or send it directly to a printer.

Regards

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