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Question

Google Chrome instead of Chromium for Forms 11 PDF generation

Forms Version 11 Installation and Upgrades
Updated April 21, 2023
asked on April 29, 2022

Chromium is not supported and our patching system does not support keeping it up to date and patched. We need to have supportable software on our servers.

Is it possible to configure LF forms 11 to use Google Chrome instead of Chromium?

Installing Google Chrome and removing Chromium has not worked.

Please advise.

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Answers

APPROVED ANSWER
replied on May 2, 2022 • Show version history

Looking at that Support site article, you could try providing the executable path for Chrome rather than Edge in the SQL statement. That's "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" for a default install.

All it appears to be doing is providing an executable path for Puppeteer, which Google describes as "a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol". Chrome may not have that same Known Issue with downloading reports as PDFs that Edge does.

I suspect we tested Edge as a Chromium alternative because as of Windows Server 2022 it's the new default browser (die IE 11, die) and thus guaranteed to exist.

If you give that a try, please do report back if it works, and if so, if Chrome has the report PDF generation issue.

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SELECTED ANSWER
replied on April 29, 2022
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View 8 previous replies
replied on April 29, 2022

Its disappointing that there are still issues with reports if we use Edge vs Chromium, but thanks! This is very helpful.

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APPROVED ANSWER
replied on May 2, 2022 • Show version history

Looking at that Support site article, you could try providing the executable path for Chrome rather than Edge in the SQL statement. That's "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" for a default install.

All it appears to be doing is providing an executable path for Puppeteer, which Google describes as "a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol". Chrome may not have that same Known Issue with downloading reports as PDFs that Edge does.

I suspect we tested Edge as a Chromium alternative because as of Windows Server 2022 it's the new default browser (die IE 11, die) and thus guaranteed to exist.

If you give that a try, please do report back if it works, and if so, if Chrome has the report PDF generation issue.

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replied on May 3, 2022

@████████ We installed Google Chrome and made the adjustment you recommended. I was able to run a report and download as a PDF.
Reports > select process > view report > download > PDF

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replied on May 3, 2022

@████████

Will the KB be updated and maybe even provide some info in the install notes about this Google Chrome / Edge option?

Even better, would be to update the installer to let you select which browser engine you want to use and make a note of shortcomings using Edge.

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replied on May 3, 2022

Awesome, thanks for testing that Kenny. Glad it worked out. I'll send this over to the Forms team to test and give an official stamp of approval, after which we'd update the KB.

Updating installers with new steps is way more complicated than you'd expect, so I wouldn't expect that in the short term. I'll pass the suggestion along either way though.

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replied on May 5, 2022

To close the loop on this, the Forms team plans to officially test Chrome as an alternative browser and (if all goes well) update the support site KB sometime in the next two weeks.

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replied on May 15, 2022

Hi @████████, @████████

Forms team has finished test with Chrome as alternative tool for Forms PDF generation, which works fine. KB1014357 has been updated to include related information.

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replied on May 16, 2022

@████████ Is there a plan to update the installer to get this setup from the beginning? I'm sure it could take different forms. From including a Chrome install to setting up the KB config for you and reminding you to install Chrome.
At a minimum, a note and link to the KB could appear in the install screens so we know its an option that can be researched.

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replied on May 16, 2022

Hi Kenny,

Thanks for your suggestion. After discussing with team, we will consider support switching the tool for PDF generation from configuration site.

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replied on April 21, 2023 • Show version history

I cannot figure out how to confirm what system is doing the PDF generation. Any ideas?

(I do not want to uninstall Chromium until I can confirm Google Chrome is working)

The PDF details show created by Chromium with PDF producer: Skia/PDF m112 & PDF version: 1.4.

I placed the update [LF_Forms].[dbo].[cf_options] of

"PuppeteerExecutablePath" = "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"

Restarted the server.

Forms v11.0.2212.30987

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replied on April 21, 2023

I believe the default Chromium executable path is:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Chromium\Application\chrome.exe"

You could try temporarily changing the "Chromium" folder name in that path to something like "Chromium2" and then rerunning your PDF generation test. If Forms is using Google Chrome rather than Chromium, that change should have no impact. If Forms is still using Chromium, you should get an "HTMLtoPDFDirectoryNotFound" error.

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