Print PDF from Workflow

Just wondering, we can convert to PDF via Workflow but we cannot Print to a physical Printer.. Is there any possibility to achieve a physical print after converting to PDF? Maybe someone already wrote a VBScript for this and can share or knows an Addon which adds this Functionality..Thank you!

  • That script should be a local one, as the server is (usually) at the Cloud Server, which does not have any printer drivers - and no, it cannot have those. The workflow is executed on the server side, and the client presents the done steps. 

    You should have some client-side process to monitor if such a way exists. It should be able to refresh the view and, when some action has been executed, to make a print of the result. It sounds like quite a complicated way of doing things. 

    However, the whole idea of the M-Files is to aim for a paperless office, so why "waste" environmental resources by automatically printing stuff? 

    I would consider other ways. 

  • If Customer expects printed Documents attached to the Delivery, there is not much we can do about this, even more if this Customer is way bigger than we are..

    I have something in Mind, just need to get the Server File Path in the VBScript, is this possible?

  • At least in theory you could print to a network-attached printer from inside a vault application.  At that point it's simply dotnet code and, provided there are no network or credential issues, it's largely just downloading the appropriate file from the vault and using the library to send it to the printer.  It may be possible to use VBScript but I'll bet that it's significantly more difficult; difficult enough that I probably wouldn't even attempt it.

    To Timo's point though: I personally don't have any code to do this.  Maybe some other people on the forum do, though.

  • I tried to just download to the network path of the printer (Printer on Printserver), but saidly it doesn't work..

    As a Workaround I now download the File to a local path, which is monitored by another Application which rund in the Backround as Service and sends the File to SumatraPDF for Printing (to default Printer).. Not very elegant way, but seems to work good..

    Also tried to print with Sumatra after downloading via the VBScript but didn't get it to work this way..

    If someone has a nice Solution I would love to try it, for the Moment it works for me..

    Edit: When dropping the file to the Network Printer by Hand it gets printed, but when I try downloading via VBScript I get a Permission Denied Error..