Problem Capturing Screenshots in PDF Reports

AppSheet AppSheet Q&A
1

Hi, I’m trying to get the SNAPSHOT() function to work properly for one of my apps. I’ve successfully created a Report behavior that calls the SNAPSHOT() function for the views I want captured in my PDF report, but all the screenshots show “No Data Available”. I’m wondering if this has something to do with the interaction between the screen capture tool that AppSheet uses and the security filters used in my app that restrict the data that individual users are allowed to see? Has anyone else run into a problem like this with their app? Any suggestions for how to solve this problem (besides removing my security filters)?

Thanks,
James

2

Hi @James_Rowe! Thank you for the question. We’ve got a member of our team looking into this and we’ll provide more information once it’s available.

3

Hi @JCadence, any further update on this issue? Would it be better to submit my issue through support@appsheet.com?

Thanks,
James

4

Hi @James_Rowe No update just yet. A member of our engineering team has been testing this to learn more. I’ll follow up with you when I have more information to provide.

5

@James_Rowe just a quick update for you- this issue is still being tested by our engineers. Thanks for your patience while we work through some of the kinks with this beta feature.

6

Hi James,

I’ve got a fix in mind for this. Snapshot is unique in the way it is rendering the view for chart which causes it to have little knowledge (right now) of the workflow that triggered it. I have coded up a way to provide this info so that security filters can be bypassed during the chart generation to ensure you have the data you need for your report. I’m waiting on a database change which is needed in order to store the workflow names so when the chart is rendered it knows what workflow created it and the associated parameters. I have been told that the database change will be completed early next week. In the meantime though, the bulk of needed logic changes are complete. I appreciate your patience and I will provide an update as soon as the fix is deployed to our servers.

Thanks,

Josh

2 Likes
7

Hi Josh,

Can you please provide an update on whether the fix is in place now?

Thanks,
James

8

Rather than using snapshot expression which is currently manage to display the snapshot for chart type view, why dont you seek alternative?

See my previous post I placed with category for Tips and Tricks.

[Do you want to display thumbnail or image for the web site?](https://community.appsheet.com/t/do-you-want-to-display-thumbnail-or-image-for-the-web-site/17450) Tips & Tricks ?

This quick tip allow you to display thumbnail (or image) in Appsheet view for the screenshot being captured from the external website. See the quick screenshot movie here. Prepare the column to capture URL for external site. In this sample, I placed https://www.appsheet.com/ The virtual column to construct screenshot for target site is poping up. On various use case, we place urls in appsheet table, and make hyperlink to it. Unless the user click link and open the site on the…

In this post, I introduced a solution to display the snapshot for webpage. However, just twist the technique a bit, it could be possible to show the PDF file saved online as thumbnail and image witthin Appsheet.
As far as we are able to capture the front page of the PDF as image, we are able to place the same on the workflow template as well.

I m not physically testing with sample app but it should work.

Rather than using miniature io as a service, there will be bunch of services to convert URL linked to pdf online to thumbnail.

I googled it and tested one, it convered ULR to thumnail successfully.

This is service written in Japanese, but I can guide you.

Create one Virtual column, which will construct the URL reaching to your PDF file in cloud.

see the docs how to construct the public url for PDF file.

Once URL is constructed then create another new Virtual Column with Image or thumbnail type.

And then place the expression like this.

"http://capture.heartrails.com/free?"&[Virtual Column storing URL to your PDF file]

This will create the thumbnail. Refer to this virtual column in your workflow template, and I m pretty much sure your will see “snapshop” ish images for your file dynamically.

Try it out and I m looking forward to hearing the outcome.

@JCadence

3 Likes