Printing to a local printer

[Guest]

Hi there,

Our client has a requirement to print labels from the web site to a local
printer. i.e. user logs onto web site and click a print button and the
address is printed to a label printer connected to the user's computer.

After much searching I think I've come to the conclusion that these are the
only possible ways of doing this:

1. Javascript Window.print()
2. Using mail merge with MS Word which opens Word and printing from there.
3. Using Crystal Reports to generate a .PDF and printing from there.
4. Using an ActiveX control (?)

Since the user is using a dedicated label printer, #1 won't work. Using
Crystal Reports may not be possible due to licensing issues (looking into it
now) plus it seems like overkill for a simple little label. I don't know
anything about using ActiveX controls so it looks like #2 is the only
feasable option since we will be using it for printing generated documents.

I am currently looking at sharing the label printer but my first attempts
were unsuccessful.

Can anyone confirm that these are the only options to printing to a local
printer from a browser?


Thanks,

Carlo.

 

[Dan]

What about just pressing print in internet explorer once the label has been
shown on the webpage at the client end?

 

[Guest]

Hi Dan,

I tried that. It didn't work. So, I thought I'd try it again to explain what
was going wrong when, lo and behold, it worked! I was having all kinds of
problems yesterday with the borders, but it "magically" worked today.
(Perhaps my computer gremlins decided to take a long weekend?) Unfortunately,
I still have to change the default page borders each time I start up the
browser again

Unfortunately it's still more steps than we'd like for the client. We're
migrating them from a Powerbuilder app (where all they had to do was click a
button to print the label) to a web app. Ideally we'd like to keep it as
simple as possible for the user.


Thanks,

Carlo.

 

[Daniel]

Hi Carlo,

No i agree it should be a simple print. I have made the same feature in some
work i do for printing invoices with attached labels. I just made the
invoice template match the paper and they then press print once they preview
it on the screen.

You shouldn't have to change the page borders each time though. Set the
margins in the browser to ensure it lines up, i believe can be done
programtically to always default to your needs through the registry
settings.

There are lots of other methods too but you shouldnt need to keep setting
the borders.

Take care