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Adobe Print Dialog not opening in Firefox 3.0

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James asked on 06 Jan 2009, 05:28 PM

I have a website that I am testing in Firefox 3.0. When a User clicks on a part number a rad window opens up with more detail information. This rad window also contains a Print button to print the part information, and it is coded to not open a report viewer, but to open the print dialog immediately. This works perfectly in IE 6 and IE 7, but not in Firefox 3.0, and I do have the adobe reader add-on installed for Firefox.

Here is the code-behind for the print button:

    
                        Me.ReportViewer1.Report = New ShowPartInfoRpt 
        
                        Me.ReportViewer1.Report.DataSource = Me._ProductInfo 
        
                        Dim printScript = String.Format("{0}.PrintReport();", Me.ReportViewer1.ClientID) 
        
                        Me.ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(Me.GetType(), "ReportPrint", printScript, True)

The ReportViewer is contained in a <div> with a style of "display: none;".

Is there another add-on that I am missing for Firefox 3.0? or any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Edited:
I did change the last line of the code sample above to show a normal alert with a simple message of "Test Show Alert", and this was shown successfully when clicking the Print button. When I change it back to the sample noted above, the print dialog does not appear, nor does the report print.

11 Answers, 1 is accepted

answered on 07 Jan 2009, 03:02 PM

FirefoxAddon.png

Hi James,

If you do not know what FoxIt Reader is, then it is highly likely you do not have it installed. Please clear all 3rd party plug-ins that you have in your Firefox Add-ons one by one in order to pinpoint which one is causing the problem (see screenshot).

Best wishes,
Steve
the Telerik team

Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.

answered on 07 Jan 2009, 04:33 PM

Steve,

So here is what I discovered in some quick research. Disabling a plug-in makes Firefox 3.0 not use that plug-in. Since this didn't work, I decided to completely un-install the application, and also deleted the application location: c:\program files\mozilla firefox\.

I then re-installed Firefox 3.0, which means it would have the default set of plug-ins, and I did not add any plug-ins. I then started the application, and attempted to print part info, and again no print dialog appeared.

I then decided to try the earlier version of Firefox, 2.0.0.20. So I downloaded this version and installed it. This version had not been installed on this machine, so I'm using the base install with no modifications at all. Retested my web application and got the same results, no print dialog.

So based on what you are saying this is a Firefox issue, but I have done clean installs of 2 different versions, 1 more than once, and still cannot get the print dialog to appear.

Now if I go to Telerik's Report Demos which all show the report viewer and click the print button on any of the reports, the print dialog will appear and the report will print, so that tells me that the report viewer will communicate with the pdf print dialog when the report viewer is being shown in either version of Firefox. To me this also means that there is no conflict with any plug-ins in either version of Firefox that would keep the print dialog from being shown.

Now in my example, which I found on your site, I am trying to print a report using the report viewer without showing the report viewer, and it works correctly in IE 6 and 7, but doesn't work in either version of Firefox that I have tried.

I don't claim to know everything, but it doesn't seem to be a compatibility problem of Adobe Acrobat add-on with another add-on under either version of Firefox, since it will work when the report viewer is shown, but doesn't work if the report viewer is in a hidden <div> tag.
Also, just so we are clear, I am using Telerik's report viewer and I am on the latest version of Telerik Reporting, Q3 2008.

Thanks for your help up to this point, and if you have any other suggestions please let me know.

answered on 09 Jan 2009, 02:53 PM

PrintThroughAdobePlugin.png

PrintThroughBrowser.png

Hello James,

Just for the sake of testing I uninstalled Firefox on my machine (made backup just in case of course), downloaded the latest version and re-installed it on my machine. Guess what - all of my add-ons and plugins are automatically added to it. I kind-a do not wish to make the same test with v.2.0.x as I do not want to mess something up for the new version as they cannot work side by side.
So basically your reinstall did not delete any of the addons/plugins that you have installed and might cause the problem and thus you get the same results.
I did try your exact case with ReportViewer hidden in div and it works properly, and this is no surprise as the Viewer is basically there, it is just not shown.
Also let's clarify which printing dialog do you see when you click on the print button of the ReportViewer in our examples. Take a look at the attached screenshots and check on your end - if you get the PrintThroughBrowser pop up, then your Adobe Acrobat plugin is not working in your Firefox and you should investigate what is causing it on your machine.
You can also use PrintAs() client method with Default argument so that it always prints with the browser printing capabilities.

Best wishes,
Steve
the Telerik team

Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.

answered on 09 Jan 2009, 04:44 PM

Steve,
After un-installing Firefox, did you actually go and delete the folder that it was originally installed in, because if you didn't then all your add-ons would have still been there, and when you re-installed it would have just picked those back up and used them.
As I explained before, this was originally a clean install of Firefox 3.0, so I was basically taking the defaults of the install program for Firefox, and whatever add-ons it installed.

When I use my currently installed version of Firefox and go to the Telerik report demo website and choose to print a report, I see the Adobe print dialog, not the browser print dialog.

So can you explain to me why I see the Adobe Print Dialog if the viewer is shown, but I do not see the Adobe Print Dialog if the viewer is hidden?
Doesn't seem to me that I have a conflict with Firefox Add-Ons if it works when the viewer is visible. I just need to know how to troubleshoot this error to a) fix it so that the dialog does show and b) to have documentation available for support if other Firefox users have the same issue. Right now there is no error of any kind getting thrown because the code sample I gave you is in a Try/Catch block and nothing is getting thrown, which I know doesn't mean there wasn't an error, just one that wasn't thrown. Processing just stops.

Thanks.

Accepted

answered on 12 Jan 2009, 12:36 PM

Hi James,

Although it is obvious that instantiating object/plugins from a hidden element is limitation of the browser, I could not find direct article/topic that would claim this, the closest one I've got is the 3rd post here.
For your scenario you can workaround this by either using absolute positioning that is outside of the visible window (-1000, -1000), or make the viewer area 1 px like so:

<div style="display:block;visibility:hidden;width:1px;height:1px;overflow:hidden;">
            <telerik:ReportViewer ID="ReportViewer1" runat="server">
            </telerik:ReportViewer>
        </div>

Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team

Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.