[Xerte-dev] Re: printing and possibly pdf generation test

[Smith, John]

Wow, that is impressive Ron, I like it!! Simple but effective...

Regards,

John Smith | Learning Technologist
Room A250, Govan Mbeki Building | School of Health & Life Sciences | Glasgow Caledonian University
Cowcaddens Road | Glasgow | G4 0BA

Please address ALL support requests to hlsblt at gcu.ac.uk where one of the School Learning Technologists will pick up the job. This will ensure that all jobs are completed as promptly as possible.
________________________________________
From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Ron Mitchell [ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk]
Sent: 01 September 2014 10:38
To: 'For Xerte technical developers'
Subject: [Xerte-dev] printing and possibly pdf generation test

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&display=fixed
Fill window regardless of settings by author:
http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=full
Fixed dimensions regardless of settings by author:
http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=600,600
Hide header and footer:
http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=fixed&hide=both
Hide footer only:
http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&display=fixed&hide=bottom
Hide header only:
http://training.mitchellmedia.co.uk/xerte/play.php?template_id=96&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&display=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






This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it.   Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment.  Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.


Glasgow Caledonian University is a registered Scottish charity, number SC021474