Print or Export Options

Print or Export Options
[mrj]

My questions to the group are about printing clean 'pages' or clean 'blog posts'.  The classic elgg product with the folio plugin had a print link to get a dedicated page for printing.  Either I am blind (and the snake will bite me), but I do not see this in the new 1.5.  I am about to go live with an education portal for my school district to support Teachers.  Our content will be lessons, etc... and should allow Staff to print what they want and not the sidebar, entire blog, etc.... if printed via the browser print option.  Would love to have something similar to the print and Pdf options like Joomla has.

Can someone clear this up for me if there will be print or export options added, or is there a plugin already made for this that I have not found yet?

In testing .92 v. 1.5, I thought I would start the portal with .92, but keep coming back to 1.5, since the community and development keeps growing.

Thanks so much for any advice.

[Dhrup]

Hmm I'm taking a small break from my real paid projects.. ;-O

What you seek -- print clean pages -- does not exist yet -- but can be done ( of course, it's *Elgg isn't it ?? )

The code to support this func might be *not trivial.. Do you have a commercial interest in this func or are you looking for a "free" plugIn ?

If commercial -- I can (maybe) put you in touch wth someone within my 'Elgg Developers Consortium" ( I will be *not doing the code work.. i'm too busy with other projects ! ) who can deliver this within a reasonable time-frame and at reasonable cost.

Delete Edit

[mrj]

Thanks for the reply Dhrup.  I think the best answer is a simple one.  ELGG does not have this most basic funtion to focus on the post or page and to print it without the sidebar/rest of the page.  Other commercial and opensource platforms have this, so too should ELGG.  I am not a coder, but do not know why this was missed in the classic or current one.  So much content strung together on one page makes taking any one piece cleanly to print a problem.  In the folio plugin for the classic version that Nathan wrote, he had it in there.  Since curverider rewrote the whole platform, it would be practical to have this feature.

I would pay for the custom code, but then would risk the loss if upgrading 1.5 to a future release.  I think this is just a fundamental need that ELGG has to have for the benefit of all users.

In my workspace (elementary education), my clients (Teachers and associated Staff) would benefit tremendously from a collab platform like ELGG, as it brings them together to share blogs, files, and wikis.  We need to be able to target in on any one piece and be able to print it.  As it stands, it looks like we have to print the whole smathering of webpage without this feature that I am looking for.  Trees lose on this one.  I hope I am not the ony one looking for this.

Can you suggest a way for me to submit this to curverider for consideration?  I bet the code to print would be small, however the effect would be enormous for all of us.  I don't even need a PDF generation export (can do with primo pdf), just need a print this link that is context specific.

Any thoughts?

[Dhrup]

@MRJ

You pay == $50 for Charity (my choice!)

and I will *either do the code myself

OR

Find someone (i.e. My Elgg friends) to code it ?

do we have a deal ?

[mrj]

Thanks Dhrup for the offer, but Dave Tosh and Colleagues @ Curverider need to solve this as part of the core offerings of ELGG.  The simple coding to them is the right thing to do.  I am not asking for much, not even a plugin.  I have learned a lot more now about ELGG and without this, enterprise adoption of this open source platform will never be considered without this most basic printing (context sensitive) feature.  All enterprise platforms seem to have this in one form or another.  Adoption of ELGG in the business or education space without this is flawed (from an end user perspective).  When we want to print a post or wiki (pages) page, we can't easily do so.  I pray that Curvrider will see this and be able to respond?  As for me and my space (k-12 education), we need this feature ASAP if we are to consider ELGG.

[Dave Tosh]

@mrj - You say "The simple coding to them is the right thing to do." - if you think the coding is so simple, and Elgg is so flawed without this functionality, why do you not code it and contribute the code back? Would that not be the right thing to do seeing as you have plenty of people in here given their time, advice and code for free?

If you need something specific for your environment you have two choices 1) build it yourself and contribute it back to the community or 2) hire a developer to do it for you (as Dhrup has kindly offered).

If neither of these options appeal and this is a crucial feature, then you will need to go and use a different platform, clearly Elgg is not the one for you.

[Dhrup]

hmm..

There is another "option" ;-O

http://community.elgg.org/mod/groups/topicposts.php?topic=76499&group_guid=52477

Kimster has raised an interesting issue with his School's Elgg Forum which is discussed at this link. where we are explorig different technologies to present data from Elgg-based pages.

[mrj]

Hi Dave,
I should not have come across as pushy or whatever may seem as so (if so).  You and your team have such a flagship product.  The collaborative nature of ELGG and now pages in the new release covers so many needs by so many institutions, including ours.  We (I) really want to make it our portal for Teachers in the education space, so as to not have to go doen the road of Sharepoint and the like.  I believe in open source as we all do.  My position (small that it may be) is just the ability to print single pages or blogs targeted to the end user's interests.  I certainly cannot code this.  My suggestion was merely targeted to this need.  For developers like you and the team, I have to believe that this would not be that hard given the whole ELGG framework that you created.  In the old version, Nathan Garrett wrote the folio plugin and in such had the print option that was wiki context sensitive.  Now that the new has pages, it would be awesome to have the same.

Dhrup, I was not able to read the post that you mentioned, so I requested to be added to the group to see it.  Dave, if it is your feeling that Dhrup would be the one to make this happen for the betterment of the whole 1.5.x release (not just for my need), then I should support it.  If so Dhrup, maybe there are others out there that would help support it as well?  I work for a public school district, so my funding is taxpayer based, so I have to be very careful with spending like this (our example is that we use Purchase Orders (POs) and never really pay like private businesses do.  I would have to have you quote me the hours needed to make this happen, send you the PO, then you do the work, then you invoice us, then we pay via check.  That is what my operations are like.  Do you think that the coding to do this is a few hours or a few weeks?  Again, I am all for supporting the platform, I just have dome differences in my procedures to follow.

I hope this makes sense to you and Dave.  Let me know your thoughts, or Dave, you can always tell me to take a hike.  I hope that is not the case.  I am trying to support the community as well.  Thanks for your ear.