Printing PDF-Based Forms
Use
From the Output Controller (transaction SP01), you can print forms that you have previously created with the new form solution based on PDF, which is available as of SAP Web Application Server 6.40.
Integration
You can create a form in the new PDF-based form solution, which is integrated into the ABAP Workbench (SE80) and the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio.
Technical background: Forms to be printed are sent to the Adobe Document Services in XML format. These services return “parts” for the forms. A part always consists of a PDF file and a print file (PostScript, PCL, or ZPL), which are placed in the Global Directory.
You can decide whether in the Output Controller (transaction SP01), a spool request is to be immediately displayed as a PDF, or whether the part list is displayed first, and the PDF display is opened only when a part is double-clicked (more information: Displaying and Printing PDF-Based Forms). In contrast to the display in the Output Controller, report RSPO0020 provides a technical view for administrators. The report also displays the associated PDF and print files and can be used for Troubleshooting when Printing PDF-Based Forms.
The XDC file is the printer description in XML format, which the Adobe Document Services require to create your print files. PDF documents can only be printed on printers of SAP device types for which there is an XDC file on the Adobe Document Server. You can use the Administration Report RSPO0022 for XDC Files to manage the mapping to XDC files on the Adobe Document Server for SAP device types.
Prerequisites
If you output the print file using the SAP functions, you must have a PCL, PostScript, or ZPL printer, since print files can currently only be created from the PDF-based forms for these printer types. You cannot use a printer with the device type SAPWIN/SWIN.
Features
The Output Controller (transaction SP01) has been extended for printing PDF-based forms. The PDF-based documents are indicated in the list of spool requests by a PDF icon. The following display options can be preset for the selection of an entry from the spool request list:
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1. By default, the first PDF document of the spool request is opened in a PDF viewer. The user can either enter the number of a document and go directly to that document, or use the arrow keys to scroll forwards and backwards through the document in steps of single documents/tens/hundreds/thousands/tens of thousands, depending on the size of the spool request.
The user can always print the currently-displayed document using the print functions of the PDF plug-in. When he or she does so, the file is printed on a local Microsoft Windows printer, and no output request is generated in the SAP system. The advantage of the standard display is that the user is immediately taken to the clear PDF display of the spool request document. However, the user cannot print across documents in this way.
2. You can change the default settings described in point 1 so that the part list of the spool request is displayed first, where a part corresponds to a print document. A spool request contains multiple parts if the add function was used when printing and multiple documents were assigned to one spool request. The system displays the individual parts of a spool request in the part list, together with their size, creation time, and number of pages. The part list display has the advantage that the user can select and print any number of successive parts (such as parts 4-6). The user can display a part in the PDF display by double-clicking the part in the part list.
To display the part list first, you need to execute report RSPO0021 in transaction SE38 with the following settings:
○ Name of the spool option: SHOW_PART_LIST
○ Select the Activate Entry option.
To deactivate the display, choose the Deactivate Entry option in the same way.
More information:
Print Architecture and Printing Methods
