I working on website for ticketing system where admins need to print tickets via Boca printer. Problem is that Boca use FGL (Friendly Ghost Language) which is a standard in ticket printing.
Is there some kind "secret" where I can be connected, some javascript, or PHP code with some BASH script what I can use to trigger prnting from web page?
Generaly I have a template in HTML format where I put user informations and barcode dynamicly and that need to be printed.
Thanks.
If your Boca is connected via a serial port you would have to resort to some underlaying mechanism to communicate to this serial port from a webpage; node-serial (or a java applet if you're into obsolete technologies) would be a solution.
The programming manual is available here for printing a simple text and cut the ticket you would pass the following command:
Hello World<p>
(replace <p> by <q> if you don't want it to cut the ticket)
If your Boca is connected via USB you can print on it via the supplied driver. A solution would be to generate a PDF with the correct ticket's dimensions and then print it out (the user would see the OS print dialog).
Related
I am working on an interactive display with sensors on a raspberry pi. My display is showing a webpage. I am using a python script to interact with the sensors. I want it so that when a user walks by, a different web page is displayed in the web browser. I have already tried changing to a different web page doing it straight from the python script. Unfortunately, it does not work the way I want it to. JavaScript works just fine for changing to a different page. I am thinking it might be good to have my python script send a message to a javascript file to change the page using JSON. Does this sound like a practical solution? Thanks.
Create your html file as a string in python. This string can be modified in response to sensor input. Write it to a file on your system where the html is source file exists; rewrite each time the sensor inputs change. Set up a timer in Javascript, e.g. setTimeout() to refresh the page often.
I have developed a token dispensing system (web based POS) with key component being a kiosk screen with angularjs on the client side and Java/Springs on the server side. The kiosk setup would be a normal (Win OS) Google Chrome browser window running on full screen mode, fitted with a thermal printer to print token slip.
The kiosk will dispense a token slip when the user clicks on a button (say 'Get Token') on the screen. The slip will contain a token number, a barcode and other miscellaneous info (like timestamp and kiosk id). The barcode has to be generated from the data I get from server side API call.
What I am looking for is a solution to silently (without print preview) print a token slip on the thermal printer connected to the client (kiosk) when the user clicks on a button on the kiosk screen.
Creating an iframe on-the-fly or binding values to a pre-defined html template is not helping since the data to be printed is not just plain text. It also has the barcode.
Any help would be much appreciated!!!
I haven't try completed solution as your demand, but you can try 2 separate steps below:
From server side API, you should generate an PDF for exactly
expectation print version as you want (mPDF is my best
recommendation) .
Disable print preview mode in google chrome with start up parameter "disable-print-preview"
(make your own shortcut at the desktop to run Chrome without print
preview mode. Then using javascript to do the print like you did
with iframe or new window.
PS: a good tip for a shortcut from techlogon: http://techlogon.com/2012/03/29/how-to-disable-print-preview-in-chrome/
I am developing a web-based POS. Unfortunately, POS must print through a thermal receipt printer (TM-T88IV, Epson). The web application is based on Django. Is there any idea on how the system could automatically print a receipt whenever a user clicks a control in the web application?
I was thinking of creating other services in python for that purpose, but that would defeat the purpose of having a web application, where all you need is a browser, without any extra installation.
The printer is connected to the client by the way, and the printing should be "silently" triggered, which means that there is no need for human intervention. Once the transaction is finalized, the printing should starts.
Any suggestion is welcomed!
I see two ways to accomplish it:
First method - Configure your browser
Notes
Good solution if you have one printer for every client (because you can use the default printer only). Keep in mind that you can remove your print server (useful for very resource limited devices) making a script that the browser should automatically execute for open your file. You can use something like this:
#!/bin/bash
printer="/dev/usb/lp0"
encoding_needed=true #false
if $encoding_needed; then
iconv -c -t 437 $1 > $printer
else
cat $1 > $printer
fi
Firefox
Manual setup:
Open about:config
Create a new boolean value called print.always_print_silent and set it to True
Create a new boolean value called print.show_print_progress and set it to False
Use an extension, like: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/attendprint/
Keep in mind that there are other extensions for making kiosks, for example:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/r-kiosk/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/mkiosk/
Chrome
You can start it with those options: --kiosk --kiosk-printing
Internet Explorer
For kiosk mode see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154780
Second method - Server handles every printer
Notes
Good solution if:
You have more clients than printers (few money or faulty printers)
More printers than clients (different printers or paper colors for different needs)
Clients that can't print directly (PDA/smartphones)
You want to know the printer status
How to do
Connect printers (to the clients and/or to the server)
Share printers connected to clients over the network
Manage every printer from your Django server
Two options here: print an html page or provide a PDF file.
Note: it was not clear initially that prints should be automatic, which means the answer is not directly useful to OP.
HTML + "Print Me"
Show the receipt as an html page, then create a media="print" CSS stylesheet which the browser will use when printing the receipt. There's a lot to say about CSS print style sheets, but what's important is that you should remove all navigation elements and images that are going to be expensive to print.
When you do this, the user will simply have to print the page himself. You can also add a "Print Me" button which is going to show your user a printer dialog. This is done via JavaScript:
Print this page
(This is a bit obstrusive for your clients who don't have JS, check this tutorial about JS printing for a better way.)
PDF
Generate a PDF in Django, and show it to the user. He will be free to print it or save it on his computer later. Most web sites do this since it's far easier to control the layout of a PDF file, and it will be easier to make it look like a real receipt.
XSL-FO can help you do this (it translates an XML to a PDF with a "stylesheet").
A more Pythonic way seems to be explained in the Django docs
The above pages lists alternatives such as xhtml2pdf (Pisa) which seems to be used a lot on StackOverflow
If using raw/esc/p try jzebra on google code.
I'm building a web application that is primarily ASP.NET MVC / Javascript. The application needs to be able to print certain content to a label printer and other content to a standard printer. I'd prefer for the user to be able to select a default printer for each one rather than having to always explicitly select a printer.
Is there a way to save and reload some sort of default printer settings for multiple printers in such an application. I am also open to using Silverlight for the p;rinting features if there is no way to do it via javascript.
Not via JavaScript, no; JS uses the browser's built-in print mechanism, which in turn defers to the OS's default print mechanism.
I know its been 6 years since this question was posted but since it wasn't answered here is what I believe is the best way to solve this issue.
You still cannot manipulate printers from a web browser, but there is a great choice out there called QZ Tray
You have to install a program that will communicate between javascript from your application and your configured printers, allowing you to send RAW printing commands and also HTML to any printer.
You can also print to multiple printers at once and save all printer configuration and parameters inside your web app, so you have full control over your printers.
Browsers do not allow javascript (or any script) to access information about the available set of printers or offer any means to select even a "prefered" printer.
Simliarly Silverlight does not support access to infomation about the set of printers available and does not allow printing API to select a specific printer to.
I've got a web app that I'm porting to an OS X Dashboard widget. The web app generates some data on the client side using JavaScript, and then, when the user wants to save it, sends it to a server-side script which relays the data back with the Content-disposition: attachment; HTTP header, triggering a save-file dialog in most browsers.
I've tried duplicating this in the Dashboard environment. The Widget simply disappears. I don't know, but I suspect that it may be actually navigating to the unfamiliar content.
So, how do I trigger a "save file dialog" -- or, failing that, use any method at all to save the data the Widget generates as a file?
As far as I know it is not possible to save a file from a dashboard widget through a "save file" dialog because the intent of widgets is to display information (with or without internet access), to do calculations or to control applications.
However you have three options to store data locally:
Store the data in the preferences of the widget.
Set the data through the setPreferenceForKey widget method and retrieve it with the preferenceForKey widget method.
This is only an option if the data belongs to the widget and does not have to be accessible outside the widget. Also the data size should not be too big.
Execute scripts through the system command of the widget.
Any scripting language can be used here (sh, perl, ruby, python, AppleScript, ...).
Write a Cocoa/Objective-C based widget plugin.
The right way to do it is a cocoa widget plugin that will let you use a save as dialog. The quick way to do it is something like this:
command = widget.system("/bin/bash -c 'cat - > ~/Desktop/test.txt'", yourHandler);
command.write( "some text" );
command.close();
This tells bash to cat stdin to a file on the desktop, then writes to stdin.