Use VBA code with Firefox in WebDriver

[PnD]

Hi all,

With IE, I can use the following code to Open a html file invisible and use IE to call execWB to print that file without any GUI poping up as well. The whole process looks so smoothly and professionally in term of user interaction with this method. 

$oIE= _IECreate ("C:\Test\ShippingLabelV3.html",0,0)
$oIE2.execWB(6,2)

Would you have any suggestion that we can achieve the same goal with either Firefox or Chrome in WebDriver? Your feedback is much appreciated. 

[Danp2]

You can run the web browser in headless mode so that the browser window isn't shown. You can use _WD_Window or _WD_PrintToPDF to generate a PDF version of the web page. Have you searched for a solution for actually printing the page? I imagine that you aren't the first person to attempt it. 😀

[PnD]

Hi Danp2,

Thank you for your suggestion. I never thought about the _WD_PrintToPdf. So I tried this 

_WD_Navigate($oFF,"file:///C:/BER/PackingSlipV1.html")

    _WD_PrintToPdf($oFF,"C:\BER\TEst.pdf)

but it does not create any test.pdf file. 

I believe that I did something wrong with this line _WD_PrintToPdf($oFF,"C:\BER\Test.pdf"). Do you have any idea?

(The browser did open the html file successfully )

 

Edited June 22, 2021 by PnD

[Danp2]

The function doesn't create a file. It returns a string containing the raw PDF file. You could write this to a file or perhaps pass it directly to a printer.

There's a simple example on the forum of the correct way to pass options in the 2nd parameter. For full details on the available options, you have to go back to the Webdriver specs.

[PnD]

Hi Danp2,

Thank you for your guidance. I searched over the forum and found this thread that seems to be relevant to our topic

However, before I could even give this one a try, I encountered an issue with _WD_PrintToPdf where the log said:

_WD_IsLatestRelease: True
_WD_IsLatestRelease ==> Success
_WD_Startup: OS:    WIN_10 WIN32_NT 19041 
_WD_Startup: AutoIt:    3.3.14.5
_WD_Startup: WD.au3:    0.4.0.4 (Up to date)
_WD_Startup: WinHTTP:   1.6.4.2
_WD_Startup: Driver:    msedgedriver.exe
_WD_Startup: Params:    --verbose --log-path="C:\Autoit Webdriver\msedge.log"
_WD_Startup: Port:  9515
__WD_Post: URL=HTTP://127.0.0.1:9515/session; $sData={"capabilities": {"alwaysMatch": {"ms:edgeOptions": {"binary": "C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft/Edge/Application/msedge.exe", "excludeSwitches": [ "enable-automation"],"args":["--user-data-dir=C:\\Users\\phong.nguyenduc\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Edge\\User Data\\", "--profile-directory=Default"], "useAutomationExtension": false}}}}
__WD_Post: StatusCode=200; ResponseText={"value":{"capabilities":{"acceptInsecureCerts":false,"browserName":"msedge","browserVersion":"91.0....
_WD_CreateSession: {"value":{"capabilities":{"acceptInsecureCerts":false,"browserName":"msedge","browserVersion":"91.0.864.54","ms:edgeOptions":{"debuggerAddress":"localhost:58111"},"msedge":{"msedgedriverVersion":"91.0.864.54 (c789bf186b966721dc5a5b881c7f11b1934f0f0f)","userDataDir":"C:\\Users\\phong.nguyenduc\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Edge\\User Data\\"},"networkConnectionEnabled":false,"pageLoadStrategy":"normal","platformName":"windows","proxy":{},"setWindowRect":true,"strictFileInteractability":false,"timeouts":{"implicit":0,"pageLoad":300000,"script":30000},"unhandledPromptBehavior":"dismiss and notify","webauthn:extension:largeBlob":true,"webauthn:virtualAuthenticators":true},"sessionId":"c34e13fbd5b775fb23f6b5477c68f8b2"}}
__WD_Post: URL=HTTP://127.0.0.1:9515/session/c34e13fbd5b775fb23f6b5477c68f8b2/url; $sData={"url":"http://www.google.com"}
__WD_Post: StatusCode=200; ResponseText={"value":null}...
_WD_Navigate: {"value":null}
__WD_Post: URL=HTTP://127.0.0.1:9515/session/c34e13fbd5b775fb23f6b5477c68f8b2/print; $sData={}
__WD_Post: StatusCode=500; ResponseText={"value":{"error":"unknown error","message":"unknown error: PrintToPDF is only supported in headless...
__WD_Post ==> Webdriver Exception: {"value":{"error":"unknown error","message":"unknown error: PrintToPDF is only supported in headless mode\n  (Session info: MicrosoftEdge=91.0.864.54)","stacktrace":"Backtrace:\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6ECC5A072+4431986]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC90D883+972931]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC9161DD+1008093]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC989713+1480467]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC963056+1323094]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC975131+1397041]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC962ECF+1322703]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC9389FA+1149434]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC939A5F+1153631]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC9CBEFD+1752829]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6EC9CA492+1746066]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6ECB48F24+3313444]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6ECC79D09+4562185]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6ECC1112E+4133166]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6ECC10684+4130436]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6ECC104D5+4130005]\n\tOrdinal0 [0x00007FF6ECC2A8CF+4237519]\n\tBaseThreadInitThunk [0x00007FFFEB357034+20]\n\tRtlUserThreadStart [0x00007FFFEB8A2651+33]\n"}}
_WD_Window: {"value":{"error":"unknown error","message":"unknown error: PrintToPDF is only supported in headless...
_WD_Window ==> Webdriver Exception: HTTP status = 500
_WD_PrintToPDF ==> Webdriver Exception
+>13:16:54 AutoIt3.exe ended.rc:0
+>13:16:54 AutoIt3Wrapper Finished.
>Exit code: 0    Time: 8.517

and this is just my simple code for testing, and both of them are generating the same error logs above.

_WD_Navigate($oFF,"http://www.google.com")
   sleep(1000)
   $a=_WD_PrintToPdf($oFF)
    ConsoleWrite($a)
    
    or 
    
   _WD_Navigate($oFF,"file:///C:/BER/PackingSlipV1.html")

   $a= _WD_PrintToPdf($oFF)
    ConsoleWrite($a)

I know this may be too much to ask for, but would you help share with me your experience on how to parse it directly to a printer assuming that I can be able to get the string successfully from the function _WD_PrintToPdf?

 

[Danp2]

12 minutes ago, PnD said:

PrintToPDF is only supported in headless mode

This is a limitation of the Chromium-based browsers. Hopefully the will resolve it at some point. Check out the function header for _WD_PrintToPDF for a link to the open issue.

16 minutes ago, PnD said:

 I searched over the forum and found this thread that seems to be relevant to our topic

I don't believe that this is needed. You should be able to write the string to a file using standard Autoit functions.

18 minutes ago, PnD said:

how to parse it directly to a printer

Unfortunately, this isn't something that I've needed to do yet. Simplest solution would be to output it to a file and then print the file with ShellExecute.

[PnD]

Thanks Dan! At this point, I may just have to stick around with IE for quite sometime when printing these stuffs until they came up the the non-headless mode solution. Thank you a lot for your guidance though. 

[Danp2]

FWIW, it should work with FIrefox.

[PnD]

Hi Dan

I did the test with Firefox and _WD_PrintToPdf actually did produce the string. However, the file just lost its color format in which it turns to Black and White  only. The rest of the format such as Front Size and Frame looks identical to the original file. 

_WD_Navigate($oFF,"file:///C:/BER/PackingSlipV1.html")

   $a= _WD_PrintToPdf($oFF)
   MsgBox(0,0,$a)
   FileDelete("C:\BER\test.pdf")
   FileWrite("C:\BER\test.pdf",$a)
    ShellExecute("C:\BER\test.pdf","","","Print",@SW_HIDE)

Is this something abnormal?

 

[Danp2]

No idea. Have you tried using ShellExecute to print the original HTML file?

[PnD]

Hi Dan,

ShellExecute would work ok with the original html file except that I have to Send ({Enter}) to the pop-up Print Windows to print which defeats the purpose of doing it silently. 

Since I am printing black and white anyway, the ShellExcecute will print pdf without any Print Windows perfectly. 

It just that when Filewrite a string generate from _WD_PrintToPdf to a pdf file, somehow the colors were just removed as showed in the picture above as well. 

[Danp2]

I'd have to do some testing to determine if that's just how the webdriver print functionality works or if somehow the color is being accidentally removed by me.

[mLipok]

Did you try to print HTML to pdf manually via browser ?

[Danp2]

FWIW, I ran some quick tests and found that there wasn't any color loss in the PDFs created with _WD_PrintToPDF.

[PnD]

13 hours ago, mLipok said:

Did you try to print HTML to pdf manually via browser ?

Hi mLipok,

Yes, I called the file directly via 

_WD_Navigate($oFF,"file:///C:/BER/PackingSlipV1.html")

 

maybe it's the reason why the color lost?

[mLipok]

No... I mean do not use WD .

Open this file manually in browser and print to pdf manually. 

Check what is going on with colors.

 

In such case Are they properly printed to pdf ?

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by mLipok

[PnD]

56 minutes ago, mLipok said:

No... I mean do not use WD .

Open this file manually in browser and print to pdf manually. 

Check what is going on with colors.

 

In such case Are they properly printed to pdf ?

 

I see what you mean. Interestingly, I try both Chrome and Firefox per your suggestion, and the color is showing again as long as the "Print backgrounds" option is checked on both browsers.  

 

With Print Background checked

 

Print backgrounds is unchecked

[mLipok]

Exactly...

Now @Danp2 turn

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by mLipok

[Danp2]

Nope @mLipok . Time for y'all to use your GoogleFu and find the answer yourself. 😄

P.S. I posted a link earlier to the W3C specs. That may help you identify a way to control the print options.

[mLipok]

@PnD try:

_WD_Navigate($oFF,"file:///C:/BER/PackingSlipV1.html")
$a= _WD_PrintToPdf($oFF,'{"isCssBackgroundEnabled": True}')

or:

_WD_Navigate($oFF,"file:///C:/BER/PackingSlipV1.html")
$a= _WD_PrintToPdf($oFF,'{"background": True}')