[Xerte-dev] printing and possibly pdf generation test

[Ron Mitchell]

Hi all

I decided it was best to start a separate thread about this but some of it
overlaps with the discussions about the new template Fay has been working
on.

 

Fay, Julian and I had a quick chat via Skype on 13th August mostly about the
new template Fay is working on but a few other ideas too. Some of that
overlapped with things I'd been thinking about and testing like the ability
to override the authors choice of display size e.g. forcing full screen in
embed code via paramaters and also hiding footer, header or both. This then
links in with an idea I had about a short term printing solution - as you
know printing is something that gets asked about quite regularly. Fay very
quickly came up with a solution for the override and hiding of footer/header
and I've been testing a print solution which takes advantage of that and
could also be used as part of the solution for creating a pdf from an LO
too.

 

So here's some tests/examples/further explanation:

 

http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/print.htm use the example or paste
in a link to your own public LO

 

The hide footer options etc will work with my example but not your own
unless you have the tweaked xenith.js installed.

 

As well as being able to print the resulting page if you have a print to pdf
driver installed you can use that page to create a pdf too.

 

As you can see all this is doing is looping through the page numbers
submitted via the form and displaying each on a single scrolling page. This
also means that each page interaction could be completed before printing if
that's what's required. Obviously there are limitations like video or if tab
nav or scrolling pages are included and will only work with the XOT not
bootstrap template but it could still be quite useful I think. Comments? Is
it worth including this as an initial printing solution? Or is a better
solution easily possible?

 

There are many benefits of the new override parameters not least of which is
the ability to embed LO's in a bootstrap page with a percentage width whilst
still being able to leave the LO at default 800px width and 600px height as
an author for nomal viewing. That combined with the ability to hide header
and footer means easy embedding of LO's in other LO's! Thanks to Fay this is
how all this works:

 

Optional parameters

&display= fixed|full|600,400

&hide=top|bottom|both|none

Examples:

Default 800 x 600 view regardless of settings by author:

http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96
<http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=f
ixed> &display=fixed

Fill window regardless of settings by author:

http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96
<http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=f
ull> &display=full

Fixed dimensions regardless of settings by author:

http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96
<http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=6
00,600> &display=600,600 

Hide header and footer:

http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96
<http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=f
ixed&hide=both> &display=fixed&hide=both

Hide footer only:

http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96
<http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=f
ixed&hide=bottom> &display=fixed&hide=bottom 

Hide header only:

http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96
<http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=f
ixed&hide=top> &display=fixed&hide=top 

 

Example embed code overriding LO display settings and hiding header and
footer:

<iframe
src="http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&displ
ay=full&hide=both" width="100%" height="665" frameborder="0"
style="float:left; position:relative; top:0px; left:0px;
z-index:0;"></iframe>

 

Not looking for lengthy discussion here - we can save that for the the
forthcoming online meeting but thanks to Fay lots of possibilities and
benefits resulting from a short online discussion!

 

Cheers

Ron

 

 

 

 

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