Introduction

Quick start with Visual Studio

Installing ScriptX on client PCs

Basic printing with ScriptX

Advanced Printing Features

Backwards compatibility

How to check if ScriptX is installed

Client Side Printing Samples

Client side NuGet packages reference

Installing ScriptX on client PCs

Client-side deployment within Internet Explorer (x86 32-Bit Edition).

ScriptX is deployed as a client-side IE Add-on, instantiated and scripted as an <OBJECT> element. Download and installation is a one-time client-side event and is handled automatically by the standard Internet Explorer Component Download technology.

The ScriptX binaries can either be installed remotely via smsx.cab, or pre-installed locally via ScriptX.msi. Both of these digitally signed packages can be found in the freely-available Client Resource kit with both packages updated upon each new version release.

Choosing the right version of ScriptX

Follow these guidelines:

  1. If all your users are using Internet Explorer 11 then install the latest version of ScriptX (8,3,0,4 ).
  2. If all your users are using Internet Explorer 10 or earlier then install ScriptX version 7.7.
  3. If you have a mixed environment with some users using Internet Explorer 11 and some using earlier versions then we recommend you install ScriptX 7.7.

Requirements for a successful installation

The end user's system must have the"Download Signed ActiveX Controls" and "Script ActiveX control marked as safe for scripting" security settings enabled for the corresponding Security Zone. These are the default settings for the My Computer,Local Intranet,Trusted Sites and Internet Security Zones.

In addition, on Windows 2000 systems and later, the user must be logged on as an Administrator/Power User. For Windows Vista and later, the user must be able to complete an Account Control elevation dialog, either through accepting the dialog since they are logged in as an administrator or by entering the user name and password of a suitable administrators account.

Codebase referencing and use of the object

ScriptX comes as standard in a single signed CAB - smsx.cab - smsx.cab is freely redistributable and is part of the freely-available Client Resource kit. The CAB file should be placed on the web server and its location should be referenced by the CODEBASE attribute of the <OBJECT>tag, as shown below:

<!-- MeadCo ScriptX -->
<object id=factory style="display:none"
  classid="clsid:1663ed61-23eb-11d2-b92f-008048fdd814"
  codebase="http://[your path here]/smsx.cab#Version=8,3,0,4
">
</object>

  • Make sure that you provide the correct relative or fully-qualified (preferred) path to the CAB file and the correct version info (8,3,0,4 ) in your CODEBASE attributes.

Enhanced PDF Printing

Enhanced PDF printing was introduced in ScriptX v6.6 and has been included in the standard installers. From ScriptX 8 onwards support for Enhanced PDF Printing is provided in a separate installer. Please see Installing Enhanced PDF Printing for details.

Pre-install ScriptX

System administrators wishing to pre-install ScriptX over an intranet should run ScriptX.msi on each client machine. This approach is an alternative to having the control auto-download the first time a user hits a ScriptX-enabled page, and avoids the standard 'signed component' prompt with which a user is normally faced.

You will still need to reference the ScriptX object on each of your pages, however, the codebase attribute can be omitted since the software is already installed.

Enhanced PDF Printing

Enhanced PDF printing was introduced in ScriptX v6.6 and has been included in the standard installers. From ScriptX 8 onwards support for Enhanced PDF Printing is separately installed and call also be pre-installed. Please see Installing Enhanced PDF Printing for details.

Alternative installers (and 64-bit Edition of ScriptX)

If the above requirements cannot be met we suggest that you ask to review our Licensee Resource Kit which contains a larger collection of .msi and merge modules and documentation. The kit enables flexible installation choices, including the ability to develop a custom installer to a licensee's own requirements using the supplied merge modules.

In addition, the Licensee Resource kit includes the 64 bit Edition of ScriptX. Whilst primarily intended for deployment on server systems for server side printing, the 64 bit Edition can be deployed for use with the 64 bit Edition of Internet Explorer. Please note that, at the time of writing, the default edition of Internet Explorer is 32 bit on all Microsoft Windows operating systems, including 64 bit OSs.

 

NOTES:

    • In your own code, we recommend that you place the ScriptX <OBJECT> elements in the document's <BODY> container.

    • The 'de-facto' standard - as started by this documentation - is to use the id 'factory' for the ScriptX object. Any id that is desired may be used.

    • For simplicity, these documents directly refer to the object via its id rather than using document.getElementById(). Either approach is acceptable.

 

With the <OBJECT> tag on your document and ScriptX installed all that is now required is some client-side script to set required printing parameters and start the print ... Basic printing with ScriptX.