Google giveth and Google taketh away. Like all modern developers, if I don’t know how to do something, I reach into my vast toolbox called Google in search of the right tool for the next task. Today was no different. A customer had a custom record type with a child sublist on the form. This was set up nicely with the parent child relationship in Netsuite. The problem here was the customer needed to print this document. Out of box Netsuite gives you a detailed report, very robust with every piece of information you ever didn’t want on it, including system notes. This would not work. My customer wanted a document like an invoice to print in a header and detail fashion. So, into the toolbox called Google I went.
It appeared this would be a time when Google taketh away. I searched high and low for a way to print a sublist on an advanced PDF to no avail. I found an enhancement request on NetSuite’s site that I could vote on and maybe someday they would write it for me, nope, I need it now. So, we had to innovate. Time to give to Google.
My first attempt was to use a “Print Template” attached to the custom record but this lead me down the same road. I could print my “header” info but no sublist.
I was all but ready to sign the enhancement request when a colleague, Ok, Ok, my boss, suggested I use a saved search print template. I created a saved search with header information and the sublist joined in.
Now to print it, Netsuite OOB gives you a basic column print on save search templates. This wasn’t enough. I needed header / detail invoice fashion. My requirement was to print one document at a time, so I filtered my search by the document number. Next, I formatted the advanced PDF to look like a document. I used the NS Invoice template as a sample. I printed my header info by referencing the results[0] elements. I then coded the sublist to print in the results list. This was done with the freemarker #list directive. The result, a saved search that printed a custom sublist and a happy customer.
We have a saying about Netsuite, it’s in there somewhere. In this case we had to dig deep to accomplish a simple task using some good old-fashioned ingenuity. I hope I was able to give back to Google in this case.
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