using QAxWidget to open pdf, printing is not working

[hskoglund]

Hi, to open on a specific page, easiest is to say to Adobe Reader to go to that page after the open() call, say like this:

void MainWindow::on_pushButton_clicked()
{
    pdf->dynamicCall("LoadFile(QString)",
        QDir::toNativeSeparators(QFileDialog::getOpenFileName(this, "Open PDF File", QDir::currentPath(), "PDF Documents (*.pdf)")));

    pdf->dynamicCall("SetCurrentPage(int)",15);
}

But why doesn't it work for you, perhaps Adobe Reader wasn't installed properly or you have a copy (there a too many of them in the Microsoft Store :-(

To check that have you the real Adobe Reader installed, you get print out it's UUID, see what pdf->control() returns for you::

    pdf = new QAxWidget(this);

    if(!pdf->setControl("Adobe PDF Reader"))
        QMessageBox::critical(this, "Error", "Make sure you have Adobe Reader (and its ActiveX) installed!");

    qDebug() << pdf->control();    // show the UUID of the widget

    pdf->setGeometry(10,10,500,500);
}

qDebug() should show a string starting with ( and some hexadecimal numbers and then ending with a }...

[philxxx609]

@hskoglund said in using QAxWidget to open pdf, printing is not working:
thanks a lot, where did you find the property associated with acrobat to found :

pdf->dynamicCall("SetCurrentPage(int)",15); ?

Because I want also to set toolbar to 0 but I don't know how to do that.

After did qdebug as you say, I received clid: CA8A9780-280D-11CF-A24D-444553540000 then I think it's the good one but after completly re-install windows from zero and then Qt, the problem for printing stay the same, I don't know what happen...

for info, with:
qDebug()<<pdf->dynamicCall("Print()");

I received:
QVariant(Invalid)

[hskoglund]

Also, have you checked that you can print manually, I mean: if you open a PDF in Adobe Reader by hand, can you print it if you click Print?

[philxxx609]

@hskoglund Yes But now I can not explain why but I can print... my problem is solved but I don't know how...

to found acrobat property I found :
https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/iac_api_reference.pdf

All what I need is in there so perfect but one command is strange for me:

SetViewMode(long nType)

width nType possible value:
PDDontCare: Leave the view mode as it is.
PDUseNone : Display the document, but neither bookmarks nor
thumbnail images.
PDUseThumbs: Display the document and thumbnail images.
PDUseBookmarks: Display the document and bookmarks.
PDFullScreen: Display the document in full-screen mode.

do you know how I have to use it?

thank you very much for your precious help!!

[philxxx609]

@philxxx609 I find other link with answers of my question, acrobat change every thing for each version :-(
https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/iac_api_reference.pdf#G4.1514939

pdf->dynamicCall("SetShowToolbar(bool)",false);
pdf->dynamicCall("SetPageMode(BSTR)","thumbs");

I still have to find how to hide the left tool panel at startup because it's heavy to close it each time...

bu at the moment, I don't found any command for it...

[hskoglund]

Very nice googling! And congratulations on getting printing to work :-)

Adobe Reader is at least 20 years old program, so it's no wonder the documentation is changing. So what I do, I have a "COM-dump" program (I wrote it a maybe 2 years ago for someone on this forum who wanted to know every function/property of Excel). So I run on it "Adobe PDF Reader", here's an excerpt of the output:

IDispatch callable type: "IAcroAXDocShim"
"Property" "src" ()
"Function" "LoadFile" ("fileName")
"Function" "setShowToolbar" ("On")
"Function" "gotoFirstPage" ()
"Function" "gotoLastPage" ()
"Function" "gotoNextPage" ()
"Function" "gotoPreviousPage" ()
"Function" "setCurrentPage" ("n")
"Function" "goForwardStack" ()
"Function" "goBackwardStack" ()
"Function" "setPageMode" ("pageMode")
"Function" "setLayoutMode" ("layoutMode")
"Function" "setNamedDest" ("namedDest")
"Function" "Print" ()
"Function" "printWithDialog" ()
"Function" "setZoom" ("percent")
"Function" "setZoomScroll" ("percent", "left", "top")
"Function" "setView" ("viewMode")
"Function" "setViewScroll" ("viewMode", "offset")
"Function" "setViewRect" ("left", "top", "width", "height")
"Function" "printPages" ("from", "to")
"Function" "printPagesFit" ("from", "to", "shrinkToFit")
"Function" "printAll" ()
"Function" "printAllFit" ("shrinkToFit")
"Function" "setShowScrollbars" ("On")
"Function" "GetVersions" ()
"Function" "setCurrentHightlight" ("a", "b", "c", "d")
"Function" "setCurrentHighlight" ("a", "b", "c", "d")
"Function" "postMessage" ("strArray")
"Property" "messageHandler" ()
"Function" "execCommand" ("strArray")

Maybe "setLayoutMode" is what you're looking for...

[philxxx609]

@hskoglund I try layout but that is not this command.

Any way my better problem has been solve then that is fine, thank you very much for all you do for me!!!

kind regards

Philippe

here my last command is case any one need it:

    pdf = new QAxWidget(this);
    if(!pdf->setControl("Adobe PDF Reader"))//("Microsoft Web Browser")
        QMessageBox::critical(this, "Error", "Make sure you have Adobe Reader (and its ActiveX) installed!");
    currentPage=0;
    pdf->dynamicCall("LoadFile(QString)",QDir::toNativeSeparators("./saft.pdf"));
    pdf->dynamicCall("SetCurrentPage(int)",currentPage);
    pdf->dynamicCall("SetShowToolbar(bool)",false);
    pdf->dynamicCall("SetPageMode(BSTR)","bookmarks");//"none"//"thumbs";

my mainwindow.cpp to mix qml and QWidget:

MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
    QWidget(parent),
    ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
    ui->setupUi(this);
    pdf = new QAxWidget(this);
    if(!pdf->setControl("Adobe PDF Reader"))//("Microsoft Web Browser")
        QMessageBox::critical(this, "Error", "Make sure you have Adobe Reader (and its ActiveX) installed!");
    currentPage=0;
    pdf->dynamicCall("LoadFile(QString)",QDir::toNativeSeparators("./saft.pdf"));
    pdf->dynamicCall("SetCurrentPage(int)",currentPage);
    pdf->dynamicCall("SetShowToolbar(bool)",false);
    pdf->dynamicCall("SetPageMode(BSTR)","bookmarks");//"none"//"thumbs";
   // pdf->dynamicCall("SetView(BSTR)","FitB");


    QQuickView *view = new QQuickView();
    QWidget *container = QWidget::createWindowContainer(view, this);
    container->setFocusPolicy(Qt::TabFocus);
    view->setSource(QUrl("qrc:/qml/Main.qml"));
    ui->horizontalLayout->addWidget(container);
    ui->horizontalLayout->addWidget(pdf);

}

[hank17_0]

@philxxx609 hi, I am using Adobe PDF Reader ActiveX Control in Qt.
I run your code, but it didn't display the pdf file. I don't know what is wrong.
It just display a gray background.


thank for your help.

[hank17_0]

My Qt version is 5.15.2

qDebug() << pdf->control(); // return the right UUID .
qDebug() << pdf->dynamicCall("LoadFile(QString)", "E:/signed.pdf").toBool(); // return true

[JonB]

@hank17_0
I think you may have tried this, and I admit that you say the call returns true so it may not be a problem, but I wouldn't have passed a path with forward slashes to LoadFile, I would have passed a Windows path with backslashes.

P.S.
Otherwise, just maybe it has read the document but isn't showing a page? For all I know maybe you need SetCurrentPage(1). Or what about SetShowToolbar(true) or the SetPageMode("bookmarks") just to see whether either of these appear?

[hskoglund]

Hi, totally agreeing with @JonB, forward slashes can spell trouble.

Also, maybe that particular pdf has a problem (just guessing) why not try another PDF (from Wikipedia):

qDebug() << pdf->dynamicCall("LoadFile(QString)", "http://tripleboot.org/Pictures/GettysburgAddress.pdf").toBool(); // return true

[hank17_0]

@JonB Thanks for your reply. I will try it.

[hank17_0]

@JonB still the same gray background. I used

pdf->dynamicCall("SetCurrentPage(1)");
pdf->dynamicCall("SetPageMode(\"bookmarks\")");

nothing happened.

I also use

dumpcpp "{CA8A9780-280D-11CF-A24D-444553540000}"

to generate acropdflib.cpp and acropdflib.h file.
But when I use these file in my project, it can't complie.

unknown type name '_IAcroAXDocShimEvents'.

[hank17_0]

@hskoglund Hi thank you for your advice. I try another pdf file, but not work.

[hskoglund]

Hmm, COM technology is old, maybe you're compiling/building for 64-bits?
Try 32-bit, it should work better.

[hskoglund]

Yes, just to confirm, I built the app both in MSVC2019 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Both version gave the same qDebug() output and no errors.
But the 64-bit version returns only a grey page (same as you got).
The 32-bit version works.

P.S: More users have had this problem, eg. https://forum.qt.io/topic/119455/qaxwidget-adobe-pdf-reader-working-with-kit-qt-5-14-1-msvc2017-32-but-not-with-kit-with-qt-5-14-1-msvc2017-64

[hank17_0]

@hskoglund Thanks for your reply. I will try it tomorrow. Very appreciate.

[hank17_0]

@hskoglund Yes, it works. Build with MSVC2019 32-bit works. Thanks for your help.