Re: Invoices

On Thu, 3 May 2001, Ludwig Meyerhoff wrote:

> Hallo!
>
> Maybe this is a bit off-topic, as this problem is more a "design"-one, but
> I wanted to write a web-application write invoices more easy. I wonder if
> it was a good idea to try this using Postgres or if it was better to write
> the data of each invoice in a separate file in a separate directory.
>
> I doubt it was a good idea to put all the data into one database like

I wrote a couple of programs for various projects to do this (one was
for someone else so I can't release it).  I kept all the data in their
own tables - account info in the account table, customer info in the
customer table, etc. - and put the data together as I generated the
invoice.  Simple, huh?  Not exactly.

Here's where the problem arises.  You can create a really good looking
invoice, in fact you can create a whole bunch of really good looking
invoices.  What you can't do with a web app is send a form feed to the
printer!  The only solution I've found so far is to create each invoice
individually using javascript and each in their own window.  Then you
issue the print command to each window.  Here's where another problem
arises...  Each print command also presents you with a print dialog, so
if you have 100 invoices you have 100 windows and 100 print dialogs and
you have to answer each dialog.

There is an alternate method and that's to write a java app to do the
printing and launch and feed it via the browser clicking feeding it a
particular datafile (much like launching RealAudio or Acrobat or ...)
Of course that really shoots the hell out of the nice invoice you can
create in your web browser.

So in that respect I'm still looking for a solution.

Vince.
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