Javascript – Print a div using javascript in angularJS single page application

angularjshtmljavascriptprintingsingle-page-application

I have a single page web application using angularJS. I need to print a div of certain page.
I tried the following:

The page contains few div (print.html)

<div>
  <div>
    Do not print
  </div>
  <div id="printable">
    Print this div
  </div>
  <button ng-click="printDiv('printableArea');">Print Div</button>
</div>

The controller has following script:

$scope.printDiv = function(divName) {
    var printContents = document.getElementById(divName).innerHTML;
    var originalContents = document.body.innerHTML;        
    document.body.innerHTML = printContents;
    window.print();
    document.body.innerHTML = originalContents;
}

This code prints the desired div but there is a problem.
the statement document.body.innerHTML = originalContents; replaces the body of the whole application since it is a SPA. So when I refresh the page or click on print button again, the whole content of the page is erased.

Best Answer

$scope.printDiv = function(divName) {
  var printContents = document.getElementById(divName).innerHTML;
  var popupWin = window.open('', '_blank', 'width=300,height=300');
  popupWin.document.open();
  popupWin.document.write('<html><head><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" /></head><body onload="window.print()">' + printContents + '</body></html>');
  popupWin.document.close();
}

Related Solutions

Javascript – When should I use double or single quotes in JavaScript

The most likely reason for use of single vs. double in different libraries is programmer preference and/or API consistency. Other than being consistent, use whichever best suits the string.

Using the other type of quote as a literal:

alert('Say "Hello"');
alert("Say 'Hello'");

This can get complicated:

alert("It's \"game\" time.");
alert('It\'s "game" time.');

Another option, new in ECMAScript 6, is template literals which use the backtick character:

alert(`Use "double" and 'single' quotes in the same string`);
alert(`Escape the \` back-tick character and the \${ dollar-brace sequence in a string`);

Template literals offer a clean syntax for: variable interpolation, multi-line strings, and more.

Note that JSON is formally specified to use double quotes, which may be worth considering depending on system requirements.

Javascript – Print
only

Here is a general solution, using CSS only, which I have verified to work.

@media print {
  body * {
    visibility: hidden;
  }
  #section-to-print, #section-to-print * {
    visibility: visible;
  }
  #section-to-print {
    position: absolute;
    left: 0;
    top: 0;
  }
}

Alternative approaches aren't so good. Using display is tricky because if any element has display:none then none of its descendants will display either. To use it, you have to change the structure of your page.

Using visibility works better since you can turn on visibility for descendants. The invisible elements still affect the layout though, so I move section-to-print to the top left so it prints properly.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Javascript – When should I use double or single quotes in JavaScript

Javascript – Print only

Related Topic

Javascript – Print
only