Printing/exporting large topic to pdf

Started by nax, August 23, 2009, 10:03:52 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

nax

Our Database is getting rather large as several of our topics are effectively chat threads.  For example an archive of one of these topics will be 1000 pages of 15 posts per page.  We don't want to simply delete these from the system as they contain some important items.  What we are looking for is a way to effectively "print" one of these large topics in it's entirety to create a PDF document that members can download on request allowing us to delete the relative records from the database.

Anyone any idea how this can be achieved so that Avatars, embeded pictures etc are included exactly as seen on the screen?  The current print option is just text.

Arantor

In theory you could modify the print template to cover this, but a simpler solution - since it won't be an everyday occurrance - might be to throw the forum into maintenance mode, adjust the number of posts per page to a very large number, then browse to that thread, and just a regular print (then putting it all back to defaults after!!)

nax

This does not work, even if I set the number of post per page to 1000 the system resets itself to 20. :(

JimM

Unfortunately I am not aware of anything that you can use to export the contents to a pdf like you are asking for.  My suggestion would be to spend some time on Google and see if this has been done before. 
Jim "JimM" Moore
Former Support Specialist

Le-St

The same question. How to print/export a large topic to PDF, including all pictures etc.

I wonder if after 5 years there is a simple solution for this simple task.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Kindred

no...   there is no real solution to this because it is not something that is frequently asked...

actually, in 10 years of this product being around, I think this has now been asked twice...
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Le-St

Thanks for the immediate answer.

Archiving pages, articles, posts, topics... in PDF format is now so popular and convenient that the absence of this function really surprises me.

Well, there is no problem to print to PDF a topic with hundred pages, but unfortunately - without pictures, which in my case are substantially important. Maybe there is a trick to add them?

Kindred

Not sure why you think is it "so popular"... nor is it really convenient, IMO... I have actually seen every business site I deal with moving AWAY from that...

however...  to address your question -- you would have to edit the printtopic template so that it included pics
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Arantor

It has been asked more than that, and adjusting the print-topic code isn't really ideal to support pictures, depending on what kind of pictures (you can already get img tags added in, but attachments is much harder)

It's also heavyweight on a system :(

Advertisement: