Julie's export to .pdf widget

JustinRiggs · ‎05-02-2011

Julie,

Thank you for posting on my earlier thread about an export to .pdf widget. I've downloaded your widget and for the most part have it working. I do have a couple of questions for you, though.

1) Why does the "bird" legend still show up in the .pdf?
2) Is there any way to get rid of the quadrants on the .pdf? My client just wants a straight .pdf of the map he/she sees on the screen.

Thanks again for an excellent widget. I'm very excited to have something that can "do the job".

Justin

KyleReese-Cassal · ‎05-02-2011

Hi Julie. It looks like the widget is referencing http://ec2-50-17-53-73.compute-1.amazonaws.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/ArcPyMapping/Birds/MapServer/0 in the python code? Is there a way to turn this off to remove the birds from the legend?

Thanks.

JustinRiggs · ‎05-04-2011

Kyle,

Did you ever figure this out? Is anyone else using this widget that can explain how it works and how to use it?

Thanks...

philippschnetzer · ‎05-04-2011

I will say this - I was pretty excited when I first discovered this tool. Installed and configured it following the instructions - that wasn't too bad. Only then did I realize that there isn't a direct link between what you see on the map and what gets printed. By this I mean that you have to configure your mxd templates for the layouts and the tool basically just grabs your extents and scale from the web app and uses that info to pan/zoom to that area in your mxd layout and then prints from that layout. The layout mxd does not care what layers you have checked on in your web app - like I said it only looks at your scale and extents...
This pretty much made this tool useless for me...although it could be useful if you have specific maps to print. For example, let's say you have a simple map and don't allow your users to turn on/off layers - then this would work well. Or you could call any of your layouts by a specific name (ie, "sewer 8X11") and have the template configured to show the sewer data - but this will always be confusing for your user when they are unable to print exactly what they see on the map.

Just check out the online local government template to see this tool in use and you will see what I am talking about: http://localgovtemplates2.esri.com/InfrastructureDashboard/index.html

JustinRiggs · ‎05-04-2011

I will say this - I was pretty excited when I first discovered this tool. Installed and configured it following the instructions - that wasn't too bad. Only then did I realize that there isn't a direct link between what you see on the map and what gets printed. By this I mean that you have to configure your mxd templates for the layouts and the tool basically just grabs your extents and scale from the web app and uses that info to pan/zoom to that area in your mxd layout and then prints from that layout. The layout mxd does not care what layers you have checked on in your web app - like I said it only looks at your scale and extents...
This pretty much made this tool useless for me...although it could be useful if you have specific maps to print. For example, let's say you have a simple map and don't allow your users to turn on/off layers - then this would work well. Or you could call any of your layouts by a specific name (ie, "sewer 8X11") and have the template configured to show the sewer data - but this will always be confusing for your user when they are unable to print exactly what they see on the map.

Just check out the online local government template to see this tool in use and you will see what I am talking about: http://localgovtemplates2.esri.com/InfrastructureDashboard/index.html

Ohhhh, this definitely won't work for me then. My users want to be able to print *exactly* what they see on the screen.

I hope that somebody can come up with a really good export to .pdf widget in the future. Actually, I wish *I* was smart enough to do it myself, but that just isn't going to happen this century.

Thanks for explaining this to me... it saved me a lot of headache and heartache.

HaroldBostic · ‎05-04-2011

Hello,

ESRI has posted a great blog about how to create print services. There are 3 examples, each increasing in functionality, including being able to print graphics. The link is http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisserver/archive/2011/04/12/An-introduction-to-arcpy.mapping-for...

While the client side examples use the esri js api, they could be easily portable to a FLEX widget. I will be creating a widget in one of my up coming projects but I'm not sure exactly when in the dev process I'm going to implement that functionality. I will post when it's complete though. In the meantime, I hope that blog helps.

Hmmmm, I have not looked at the current widget, but I suspect, like the ESRI blog, the power is in the print service, It's quite possible all you would have to do is subplant the ESRI print service for the current one and use most of the current widget to make the new call with updated parameters. Again, I have not looked at the widget so I could be way off

JustinRiggs · ‎05-05-2011

Hello,

ESRI has posted a great blog about how to create print services. There are 3 examples, each increasing in functionality, including being able to print graphics. The link is http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisserver/archive/2011/04/12/An-introduction-to-arcpy.mapping-for...

While the client side examples use the esri js api, they could be easily portable to a FLEX widget. I will be creating a widget in one of my up coming projects but I'm not sure exactly when in the dev process I'm going to implement that functionality. I will post when it's complete though. In the meantime, I hope that blog helps.

Hmmmm, I have not looked at the current widget, but I suspect, like the ESRI blog, the power is in the print service, It's quite possible all you would have to do is subplant the ESRI print service for the current one and use most of the current widget to make the new call with updated parameters. Again, I have not looked at the widget so I could be way off

Harold,

Thanks for pointing me to that blog entry. Unfortunately, I'm still too wet behind the ears to understand most of what's said there. I am excited to hear that you'll be developing a widget of your own, though, and even more excited to hear that you'll be sharing it with the community. I'll look forward to seeing it whenever you get around to developing it.

Justin

bentank · ‎06-20-2011

Has anyone made any progress in getting the "advanced" export to PDF widget working in Flex? with the ability to essentially save a screen shot of the view displaying the selected layers.

TomSchuller · ‎06-21-2011

bt29,
did you meaned this "advanced" export to pdf?
http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=6809086326ea4c76bf026a32bb9dd698

Tom

MarkHuffman · ‎06-21-2011

What Tom is referring to is what I switched to when I realized the other one wouldn't work for me.

It is a very full featured print widget that includes export to PDF, as well as to other formats. Kudos to Tom for developing it.

The widget page includes links to two forum threads that may answer many questions about installation, configuration, etc. Plus there is a link to a very helpful quick start installation guide that is actually very detailed.

(I was put off for a while by the widget page title, which may make little sense to tech newbies - JAVA? SOE? The key word is PRINT.)