Printing a Oracle PDF Report from within a Oracle Form on Linux
Is there a command I can use in Oracle Forms to invoke a shell script to open a PDF output report stored on a physical location on the Linux server and print it to the printer?
What I'm currently trying to do is send a Report called within Oracle Forms 10g to "DESTYPE=FILE DESFORMAT=PDF DESNAME=directory/filename.pdf". I'm storing all the information about the file and printer information prior to it being run with the RUN_REPORT_OBJECT. What I want to happen is as soon as it finishes generating the file, I want (behind the scenes) is it to locate the file, open, and print it automatically, but never show the output to the user on the screen.
I know with the "DESTYPE=cache DESNAME=filename DESFORMAT=PDF" that it puts the info in the Reports Server / Cache directory, but also opens it in a separate browser window of which you can select the printer at that point. I don't want to do that in this option.
I previously tried to use the "DESTYPE=printer" option but, the issue with it has to deal with fonts. I do not want to store fonts on every printer, given the different types of printers our users have. I can print to the printer but the fonts are all messed up so, not an option.
So, basically I'm trying to replace that option with generating to a PDF, then I don't have to worry about fonts, since I have them all working, then I can just open the PDF file on the server and send to the printer. I was wondering if that is an option available in Oracle Forms when calling reports. I figured that when someone sends the option of "DESTYPE=printer" that it must be calling some shell script on Linux that handles this. I'm just not seeing it.
Any help is appreciated.
Chris