using QAxWidget to open pdf, printing is not working

philxxx609

Hello guys,

using the code bellow:
PDF_Reader.pro

QT       += core gui axcontainer printsupport

greaterThan(QT_MAJOR_VERSION, 4): QT += widgets

TARGET = PDF_Reader
TEMPLATE = app


SOURCES += main.cpp\
        mainwindow.cpp

HEADERS  += mainwindow.h

FORMS    += mainwindow.ui

main.cpp

#include "mainwindow.h"
#include <QApplication>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);
    MainWindow w;
    w.show();

    return a.exec();
}

mainwindow.cpp

#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"

MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
    QMainWindow(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!");

    setCentralWidget(pdf);
}

MainWindow::~MainWindow()
{
    delete ui;
}

void MainWindow::on_actionOpen_triggered()
{
    /*pdf.dynamicCall("Navigate(const QString&)", QDir::toNativeSeparators(QFileDialog::getOpenFileName(this,
    "Open PDF File",
    QDir::currentPath(),
    "PDF Documents (*.pdf)")));*/
    pdf->dynamicCall("LoadFile(QString)",
                     QDir::toNativeSeparators(QFileDialog::getOpenFileName(this,
                                                                           "Open PDF File",
                                                                           QDir::currentPath(),
                                                                           "PDF Documents (*.pdf)")));
}

mainwindow.h:

#ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H

#include <QMainWindow>
#include <ActiveQt>

namespace Ui {
class MainWindow;
}

class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
    Q_OBJECT

public:
    explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
    ~MainWindow();

private slots:
    void on_actionOpen_triggered();

private:
    Ui::MainWindow *ui;

    QAxWidget *pdf;

};

#endif // MAINWINDOW_H

all is working fine except print button, nothing happen, no error, no printing dialog , why?

thanks for your help

Philippe

hskoglund

Hi, all looks good except

...
setCentralWidget(pdf);
...

it probably will just shanghai all of your mainwindiow, try giving Adobe Reader just a part of your mainwindow, :
...
// setCentralWidget(pdf);
pdf->setGeometry(10,10,500,500);
...

philxxx609

@hskoglund Hi, I try already but nothing changed

hskoglund

Hi. just tried your project on my Windows 10 PC. using Qt 5.15.0 MinGW32.
I couldn't get your on_actionOpen_triggered() to work (is that a signal from your menu perhaps?) so I instead added a QPushButton to start Adobe Reader.

So my mainwindow.cpp looks like this:

#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"

MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent)
    : QMainWindow(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!");

   // setCentralWidget(pdf);
    pdf->setGeometry(10,10,500,500);

}

MainWindow::~MainWindow()
{
    delete ui;
}


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

I downloaded and installed Adobe Reader, when I start the program, I click on the button, select a PDF and the screen looks like this:

On Adobe Readers' black ribbon I click on the 2nd left print Icon, and then I can print:
Screenshot 2020-07-18 at 16.04.31.png

philxxx609

@hskoglund could you send me the link of the acrobat you had installed? trying with the qt 5.15 mingw32 same problem no printing even changing

    setCentralWidget(pdf);
   //pdf->setGeometry(10,10,500,500);

to

    //setCentralWidget(pdf);
   pdf->setGeometry(10,10,500,500);

hskoglund

It is the standard DC reader:
https://get.adobe.com/reader/

philxxx609

@hskoglund may be could you send me the full code you use then, I don't understand what is wrong on my side...

I change pdf->setGeometry(0,20,800,800); to be able to see the file upload button

hskoglund

You mean you don’t get the black ribbon to appear?

Anyway, my project Iis almost the same as your project, I only added a QPushButton and a slot for it.
I’ll upload it when I get back to my PC, taking a walk right now...

hskoglund

Hi, my project is here

But don't worry, there's more than one way to skin a cat, got an idea during my walk: since we've loaded Adobe DC Reader via COM/QAxObject, you can instruct it to print through COM instead of the black ribbon.

So I created another QPushButton (it's in the uploaded project):

Screenshot 2020-07-18 at 20.31.02.png

The 2nd QPushButton has this line:

void MainWindow::on_pushButton_2_clicked()
{
    pdf->dynamicCall("Print()");
}

Pressing that button, voila, the print dialog appears :-)

philxxx609

@hskoglund Hello, thanks a lot but same issue with your test project, nothing happen when click on print button...

philxxx609

@philxxx609 I will try to reinstall QT in case...
Other question, may it possible to pass argument with QAxWidget?

I would like open my pdf to specific page, the argument following acrobat is "page= page number" ea. "page=15"

Thank you for your help

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.

Important: Please read the Qt Code of Conduct - https://forum.qt.io/topic/113070/qt-code-of-conduct

using QAxWidget to open pdf, printing is not working