How to print a specific element in Vue 3?

Question

I'm working on a project where I want the functionallity to print a specific element of my page. There is a mixin/plugin called VueHtmlToPaper that does exactly what I want but I have trouble importing it into my Vue 3 CLI project since it was created for VueJS2 and the global API is different. Any help is appreciated.

main.js

import { createApp } from 'vue'

import App from './App.vue'

 createApp(App).mount('#app')

Project structure :

I haven't used it before but this is the documentation of the plugin [link](https://randomcodetips.com/vue-html-to-paper/) In vue 3 you create the vue instance with ```createApp``` so you don't have access to Vue.use — Pazulay, Nov 13 '20 at 16:19
this plugin is not compatible with vue 3, you should look for another plugin or wait until they release new version compatible with vue 3 — Boussadjra Brahim, Nov 13 '20 at 16:24
but i think that i'm able to provide a code based on their code that works for vue 3, give me some time to try it out — Boussadjra Brahim, Nov 13 '20 at 16:31
Thank you so much! That would really help me out. I'm pretty sure all the code is in the src/index.js. I'm very bad at vanilla javascript so I had trouble understanding that code. — Pazulay, Nov 13 '20 at 16:35
please share the main.js file and your project structure, for the project structure you could share a screenshot — Boussadjra Brahim, Nov 13 '20 at 16:40
My main.js right now is just ``` import { createApp } from 'vue' import App from './App.vue' createApp(App).mount('#app') ``` And this is a screenshot from my components if that's what you meant by project structure [link](https://paste.pics/8eab338fb9b60ff10af8ca797f52876f) — Pazulay, Nov 13 '20 at 16:47

Boussadjra Brahim · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-13T17:02:11.360

Since this plugin is not compatible with vue 3, we could do our plugin based on vue-html-to-paper plugin :

create a folder called plugins in project root then inside it add VueHtmlToPaper.js file with the following content :


function addStyles(win, styles) {
    styles.forEach((style) => {
      let link = win.document.createElement("link");
      link.setAttribute("rel", "stylesheet");
      link.setAttribute("type", "text/css");
      link.setAttribute("href", style);
      win.document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(link);
    });
  }
  
  const VueHtmlToPaper = {
    install(app, options = {}) {
      app.config.globalProperties.$htmlToPaper = (
        el,
        localOptions,
        cb = () => true
      ) => {
        let defaultName = "_blank",
          defaultSpecs = ["fullscreen=yes", "titlebar=yes", "scrollbars=yes"],
          defaultReplace = true,
          defaultStyles = [];
        let {
          name = defaultName,
          specs = defaultSpecs,
          replace = defaultReplace,
          styles = defaultStyles
        } = options;
  
        // If has localOptions
        // TODO: improve logic
        if (!!localOptions) {
          if (localOptions.name) name = localOptions.name;
          if (localOptions.specs) specs = localOptions.specs;
          if (localOptions.replace) replace = localOptions.replace;
          if (localOptions.styles) styles = localOptions.styles;
        }
  
        specs = !!specs.length ? specs.join(",") : "";
  
        const element = window.document.getElementById(el);
  
        if (!element) {
          alert(`Element to print #${el} not found!`);
          return;
        }
  
        const url = "";
        const win = window.open(url, name, specs, replace);
  
        win.document.write(`
          <html>
            <head>
              <title>${window.document.title}</title>
            </head>
            <body>
              ${element.innerHTML}
            </body>
          </html>
        `);
  
        addStyles(win, styles);
  
        setTimeout(() => {
          win.document.close();
          win.focus();
          win.print();
          win.close();
          cb();
        }, 1000);
  
        return true;
      };
    }
  };
  
  export default VueHtmlToPaper;

I just copied/pasted this code and I replaced Vue by app, then import it in main.js :

import { createApp } from 'vue'

import App from './App.vue'

 import  VueHtmlToPaper from './plugins/VueHtmlToPaper'

let app=createApp(App);

 app.use(VueHtmlToPaper)

 app.mount('#app')

then use it in any component like :

<template>
<div class="home">
    <img alt="Vue logo" src="../assets/logo.png">

    <!-- SOURCE -->
    <div id="printMe">
        <h1>Print me!</h1>
    </div>
    <!-- OUTPUT -->
    <button @click="print">print</button>

</div>
</template>

<script lang="ts">
import {
    defineComponent
} from 'vue';
import HelloWorld from '@/components/HelloWorld.vue'; /

export default defineComponent({
    name: 'Home',
    components: {
        HelloWorld,
    },
    methods: {
        print() {
            this.$htmlToPaper('printMe')
        }
    },
    mounted() {

    }
});
</script>

LIVE DEMO

It seems to work. I had to remove double negatives !! in VueHtmlToPaper.js though. Thanks. — AndreasInfo, Feb 05 '21 at 14:18
Did you manage to use a local css-file in the options? I can't get it done somehow. — AndreasInfo, Feb 05 '21 at 16:53
As of today this solution is deprecated because the package does not support vue 3. — MrEduar, Jul 22 '22 at 19:42
@BoussadjraBrahim How would you use this with script setup in vue 3? — NaturalDevCR, Jan 05 '23 at 05:23

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 07 '21 at 08:42

To prevent additional window, I replace window with the iframe inside VueHtmlToPaper.js

function addStyles(win, styles) {
    styles.forEach((style) => {
      let link = win.document.createElement("link");
      link.setAttribute("rel", "stylesheet");
      link.setAttribute("type", "text/css");
      link.setAttribute("href", style);
      win.document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(link);
    });
  }
  
  const VueHtmlToPaper = {
    install(app, options = {}) {
      app.config.globalProperties.$htmlToPaper = (
        el,
        localOptions,
        cb = () => true
      ) => {
        let 
          defaultStyles = [];
        let {
          styles = defaultStyles
        } = options;
  
        // If has localOptions
        // TODO: improve logic
        if (localOptions) {
          if (localOptions.styles) styles = localOptions.styles;
        }
  
        const element = window.document.getElementById(el);
  
        if (!element) {
          alert(`Element to print #${el} not found!`);
          return;
        }
  
        var ifprint = document.createElement("iframe");
        document.body.appendChild(ifprint);
        ifprint.setAttribute("style","height:0;width:0;");

        const win = ifprint.contentWindow;
  
        win.document.write(`
          <html>
            <head>
              <title>${window.document.title}</title>
            </head>
            <body>
              ${element.innerHTML}
            </body>
          </html>
        `);
  
        addStyles(win, styles);
        
  
        setTimeout(() => {
          win.document.close();
          win.focus();
          win.print();
          win.close();
          document.body.removeChild(ifprint);
          cb();
        }, 1);
  
        return true;
      };
    }
  };
  
  export default VueHtmlToPaper;

Thanks for posting this, not sure what extra window you were referring to but I was not able to get Microsoft Print to PDF to display a save file dialog until I replaced the original code with your. — Harvey Mushman, Nov 21 '21 at 00:32
I am stil a noob. the first VueHtmlToPaper errored with me. this not. — Tichel, Mar 21 '22 at 12:58

How to print a specific element in Vue 3?

2 Answers2

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