Feature Request: Generate a Shopping List in a PDF which allow selecting text with the mouse

[AdrienDSlone]

Hello, sometimes I would like to copy and paste a part of the ingredients from the PDF list but I can't select the text. Instead, when I clic a text, I have a hand mouse and it grab the page.

To reproduce it, I used Sumatra to read the generated Shopping.pdf.

[berrnd]

Your Browser generates a PDF, not grocy - so it's entirely up to your Browser if text is "real text" or maybe a picture in your PDF.

Or it's maybe a simple configuration issue or a limitation of your preferred PDF reader.

I took the time to reproduce that using Firefox:

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2161815/216667510-22cb2b8d-93f8-4bfb-9466-132a834fad2d.mp4

And your choosen PDF reader SumatraPDF:

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2161815/216667648-6ec208ed-64c9-4de7-834c-1dd46e8bd9ef.mp4

And I can't reproduce that.

In any case, as said, grocy definitely renders / displays text - what your Browser does with that when generating a PDF or how your PDF reader of choice behaves when trying to select text is completely out of control of grocy.

[AdrienDSlone]

Thank you very much for your quick answer :) I wasn't aware of my browser's intern process. I will check why the PDF is delivered as I described and not as yours and update some news here as soon as I found why.

[AdrienDSlone]

My PDF exported with firefox (109.0.1) works fine thanks to docker-composer from https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-grocy

I forgot to mention that I was using the desktop app. Since my post, I tried to print my list with few PDF printer . On shopping list screen, I clicked "Print" button, then chose a printer then "print" again.

• with Microsoft Print to PDF, I obtain the issue as described above.
• with https://github.com/clawsoftware/clawPDF - I can select something inside the pdf but it copies and pastes that "�? !"?#? $?"%???&" On the picture we can see that I can't pick the text but something under it.
• 
• and with https://github.com/stchan/PdfScribe : I did the same thing with ClawPDF and I also copied this : "!"?#? $?"%???&".

I posted here because I thought it was global, should I open an issue here ? : https://github.com/grocy/grocy-desktop

[berrnd]

with Microsoft Print to PDF, I obtain the issue as described above.

Then that's clearly an issue of Microsoft Print to PDF (more than obviously a well known one, when doing a quick Google search on that topic).

 

with https://github.com/clawsoftware/clawPDF - I can select something inside the pdf but it copies and pastes that "�? !"?#? $?"%???&" On the picture we can see that I can't pick the text but something under it.

Then that's clearly an issue of clawPDF.

 

and with https://github.com/stchan/PdfScribe : I did the same thing with ClawPDF and I also copied this : "!"?#? $?"%???&".

Then that's clearly an issue of PdfScribe.

  Once again: grocy doesn't generate PDFs, it renders a web page (with text!). It's your Browser or your used PDF printer (whyever something like that is still a thing in 2023 where each and every major Browser can generate - obviously better - PDFs themselves).

 

I posted here because I thought it was global, should I open an issue here ? : https://github.com/grocy/grocy-desktop

Feel free to do that, here is the answer you will get from me there: grocy-desktop uses CefSharp as an embedded Browser and has, unlike Chrome itself, no built-in "Save to PDF" functionality in the print dialog. So you can only use such a PDF printer there, if you really need to "print" stuff to PDF and then live with the limitations of the PDF printer of choice.

grocy-desktop is a very simplified and managed "just works" way to run grocy. If you want to have control over every environment detail, it's always better to run the corresponding application yourself.

[berrnd]

By the way: It's of course also possible to use grocy-desktop to run a "grocy server" (if that's really your preferred way of running it) and use any other Browser to access the web frontend - see: https://github.com/grocy/grocy-desktop#external-access

[AdrienDSlone]

Thank you for giving me all the details, I understand now.

As you recommended, I run the grocy-desktop as a server, open its URL in Firefox and printed the list. It's awesome !

For those who want to know where I found the server URL, it's in the bottom of the desktop app on the left corner, after you did that : https://github.com/grocy/grocy-desktop#external-access

[berrnd]

For those who want to know where I found the server URL, it's in the bottom of the desktop app on the left corner

Just like mentioned at exactly the same place: External access Both, grocy and Barcode Buddy (if enabled), can be optionally accessed from external machines, external access can be enabled via File -> Enable external access (please accept the native Windows firewall question accordingly). See the status bar for information about the URLs.