1071173 - printing messages directly in PDF or PS format with printEngine.startPrintOperation fails on MAC

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[intendentedelleacque]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/24.0
Build ID: 20140825054619

Steps to reproduce:

In my extension ImportExportTools (https://addons.mozilla.org/en/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools), I've added an option to save the messages directly in PDF format.

To do this, I overwrite the function OnLoadPrintEngine in http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/mailnews/base/content/msgPrintEngine.js changing the printSettings in this way

printSettings.printerName = "";
printSettings.printSilent = true;
printSettings.toFileName  = <filepath>
printSettings.printToFile = true;
printSettings.outputFormat = <a value that is 2 by default, but that the user can change>

After this I launch printEngine.startPrintOperation(printSettings)

This works well on Linux and Windows, tested by myself and other users. 

But the same function seems to fail with all the file formats (PDF, PS or native) on MAC, where the operation is performed anyway on the default printer instead on the file. I couldn't test it by myself, but several users confirmed me this problem, with different MAC versions. 

Is this a MAC specific bug or there is something wrong in this code?
How can help you to understand more about this issue?

Comment 1

[Javi Rueda :javirid]

Error Console log could help :)

Comment 2

[intendentedelleacque]

Sure, but those users told me that there is no error in Error Console.

Comment 3

[intendentedelleacque]

A confirm of this bug is here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=162659#c51
It uses nsIWebBrowserPrint but basically it's the same issue, on MAC it's impossible to print in PDF format.

Comment 4

[Javi Rueda :javirid]

(In reply to intendentedelleacque from comment #0)
> User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101
> Firefox/24.0
> Build ID: 20140825054619
> 
> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> In my extension ImportExportTools
> (https://addons.mozilla.org/en/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools), I've
> added an option to save the messages directly in PDF format.
> 
> To do this, I overwrite the function OnLoadPrintEngine in
> http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/mailnews/base/content/
> msgPrintEngine.js changing the printSettings in this way
> 
> printSettings.printerName = "";
> printSettings.printSilent = true;
> printSettings.toFileName  = <filepath>
> printSettings.printToFile = true;
> printSettings.outputFormat = <a value that is 2 by default, but that the
> user can change>
> 
> After this I launch printEngine.startPrintOperation(printSettings)
> 
> This works well on Linux and Windows, tested by myself and other users. 
> 
> But the same function seems to fail with all the file formats (PDF, PS or
> native) on MAC, where the operation is performed anyway on the default
> printer instead on the file. I couldn't test it by myself, but several users
> confirmed me this problem, with different MAC versions. 
> 

I tested it on Thunderbird Trunk:

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.10; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.0a1

First time it popped up the dialog box to select destination of file, however after selecting one, it directed the output to the default printer, as noted on comment 0.

In a few minutes after that, without restarting Thunderbird, I tested it again and the extension saved every single message as a PDF file on the selected folder.

As reporter said, no message was logged on Console Error while following the steps. I choose the path of "Exporting all message on the folder"/"PDF Format".

I haven't done any research about possible known bugs that would lead this to be marked as a duplicate, so I am leaving it as Unconfirmed now.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Javi Rueda from comment #4)
> Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.10; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101
> Thunderbird/38.0a1
> 
> First time it popped up the dialog box to select destination of file,
> however after selecting one, it directed the output to the default printer,
> as noted on comment 0.

hmm, like bug 1115541

> In a few minutes after that, without restarting Thunderbird, I tested it
> again and the extension saved every single message as a PDF file on the
> selected folder.

That's very strange.

Does it still reproduce?

Comment 6

[intendentedelleacque]

This bug seems to be still present in 58 version

Comment 7

[Javi Rueda :javirid]

Reporter said it is still happening. Sorry for the late comment from me.