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onbeforeprint() and onafterprint() equivalent for non IE browsers (PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML)

Answer 1

+2 A:

I m not sure other browsers will allow you to. You could of course specify an image somewhere in a print stylesheet, which probably only will be called on a print, for the onbeforeprint

Wrikken 2010-07-26 23:52:56

Are you suggesting something like this?http://www.siteexperts.com/forums/viewConverse.asp?d_id=19568

typoknig 2010-07-27 00:17:08

Don't know if that'll work. I would suggest calling a server-sided script as the image source which indeed returns an image, and just does the stuff you like (log a print action, possibly set a session variable other js on the page can retrieve / poll for etc.)

Wrikken 2010-07-27 09:50:31

Answer 2

A:

Try masking the native window.print() with your own...

// hide our vars from the global scope
(function(){

  // make a copy of the native window.print
  var _print = this.print;

  // create a new window.print
  this.print = function () {
    // if `onbeforeprint` exists, call it.
    if (this.onbeforeprint) onbeforeprint(this); 
    // call the original `window.print`.
    _print(); 
    // if `onafterprint` exists, call it.
    if (this.onafterprint) onafterprint(this);
  }

}())

Updated: comments.

no 2010-07-26 23:55:51

Thanks @no, but I am having a hard time following your code. You say this will mask the native print function in any browser? This raises another question for me too, could I just make a JavaScript function that checked EVERY window event and then execute the function I want to execute before printing when `window.print == true`?

typoknig 2010-07-27 00:20:17

@typoknig: it will; because of that you may want to choose different names for `onbeforeprint` and `onafterprint`. I'm assuming you want to catch calls to `window.print` from other scripts besides your own. About the second part of your question, I think it would work, but it sounds like overkill...

no 2010-07-27 00:29:18

@typoknig: I added code comments to my answer, should help explain what's going on.

no 2010-07-27 00:32:23

On my page I do not provide the user with a print button, so what I really need to catch is when the user goes to `File > Print` in a non IE browser. I'll mess around with it a bit and see if I can get your code to work, if not then I might go "overkill" :)

typoknig 2010-07-27 00:32:48

This won't help you then. Take another look at Wrikken's answer; you can put the data you want into a query string, then add a print css rule that loads an image via a server-side script that stores the data from the query string before responding with an image.

no 2010-07-27 01:05:08

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onbeforeprint() and onafterprint() equivalent for non IE browsers (PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML)

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