Printing in Dot-matrix printer

[Aditya]

Hi,

I am working on a Web based Intranet application and one of the requirements
of the project is to print to a dot matrix printer.

The users access the application through a web browser (IE) and submit data
forms of various types like Sales Invoices etc. Once they create a document
like a Sales Invoice, they need to print the document in a dot-matrix
printer connected locally.

I am presently writing ASP code that generates a dynamic text file based on
the layout that is to be printed and send the text file to the client
machine where an ActiveX component then sends the text file to the printer.

Though this process works, I am not sure if this is an effecient method. The
problems as I see it:

1. The layout in which the document is printed is hard coded in the
application and to change the printing layout, changes to the ASP code is
necessary.
2. I need an ActiveX component in the client machine and that means, the
client cannot use any browser or OS as he/she may wish.
3. It is taking a lot of coding effort to generate such layouts and dynamic
text files and there are numerous documents and reports to be printed.

Can anyone offer me a better solution to this problem. Any help will be
highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Aditya

 

[Evertjan.]

Aditya wrote on 26 jan 2004 in microsoft.public.inetserver.asp.general:

Can anyone offer me a better solution to this problem. Any help will be
highly appreciated.

Just make a textfile and have the browser print it via user print command.
You can changer the layout by having the user specify the format required.

Or

Use an .hta file downloaded to the user (intranet !) to do the printing.

Or

etc ...