Building a RhoElements Zebra Badge Printing Application

Building a RhoElementsZebra Badge PrintingApplicationDavide Schembari (MSI)Gary Malcolm (Zebra)

Welcome

Agenda• Introduction• Badge printing with RhoElements and ZebraZXP printers• APD (Adaptive Printer Driver)• Wristband printing with RhoElements andZebra HC100• Label printing with RhoElements and ZebraQLn320• Related sessions

Introduction• Modern enterprises require printing operations atany level of the organisation.• When barcode printing is involved, it most likelymeans that printing is a vital part of the assetmanagement and logistics of the business.• Driving a modern printing infrastructure can bevery easy when the right tools are used.• Users at any level ask for simplicity, ie.:• The end users just wants to print a label with relevantdata;• Developers want to focus their resources in the actualdesign and user experience, not working out how thedifferent printers work.

RhoMobile Suite & RhoElements• Motorola provides the developercommunity with RhoMobile suite.• RhoMobile Suite and its enterpriseextension RhoElements overcome thetraditional compromise between consumerexperience and enterprise robustness.• Cross-platform: develop ones and deployin several platforms (Android, iOS, etc.)

How did we print your badges?HTTP post (delegatename)WebServiceCloudXMLtemplate

ZXP Print Manager Interfacecomponents• ZXP Print Monitor• Monitors and logs printer status for ZXP-8, 7, 3• Administrator for Print Manager• ZXP Print Manager• Managed Network Card Printing• Device Output (ZMotif, XML, CSV, binary)• Interface Commands• For data streaming ( Store, Submit, Delete, Request )• Template XML specification• Defines card layout and data binding• Data Document specification• Identifies template and data to be bound• Job Document specification• Self contained data and card layout, does not require template8

Zebra ZXP Print ManagerPrintMonitorPrintPrintPrintQueue 2 Queue 1Manager

APD• APD is a simple, yet powerful interface toRhoElements applications to transfer tovirtually any portable printer via Bluetoothor Wireless LAN.

Why use APD?• APD takes care of connectivity• APD abstracts your applications from thedifferent printer command languages• This means that the application only needs• This means that the application only needsto set the actual data to print and to whichprinter

What can APD print?• Receipts• Labels• Tags• Tickets• Wristbands• Whatever the printer can print!

Template files?• In order to use the full potential of APD, youwill need to create template files• Template files contain the layout of the pageyou want to print encoded in the printerlanguage (i.e. CPCL, ZPL), plus placeholdersfor the variable data. This placeholders arethe ones used by APD to position the datafrom your application inside the template. Theresulting data will be then sent to the printer.

Wristbands with RhoElementsand Zebra HC100• The Zebra HC100 is a 300dpidirect-thermal printer able toprint wristbands for multipleapplications such as patientid’s, security, promotionalwristbands etc.• It supports ZPL language,therefore it can be used withAPD.

How to create the wristbandtemplate file• As the HC100 supports ZPL, this enablesRhoElements developers to make themost of the printer in the simplest possibleway, which is using APD.• The best tool to create a template for aZebra printer is Zebra Designer.

Done!^XA^MMT^PW291^LL3300^LS0^FT80,1808^BQN,3,7^FDMM,A$$[1]$$^FS^FT181,2677^A0B,58,57^FH\^FD$$[1]$$^FS^FT267,2677^A0B,58,57^FH\^FD$$[2]$$^FS^FT92,2674^A0B,83,81^FH\^FDAPP FORUM 2012^FS^PQ1,0,1,Y^XZ

How to name the template file?• APD has only one requirement about thename of the file containing the template:• The extension needs to match the printer type• So for instance, as the HC100 is a Z41-• So for instance, as the HC100 is a Z41-type printer to APD, we can name thetemplate as “mywristband.Z41”

How to use the template inJavascript...• APD offers a Javascript interface to theRhoElements developers, which can beused with any application paradigmoffered by RhoMobile Suite, either nativeapplications or web.

...code snippet• function printWristBand(){}apd.PSExternal(261, wlanPrinterId);alert(apd.PSExternalEx(266,"$$[CMD:0101,1]$$\r\nmotowristband\r\n"+ document.frmWristband.txtName.value +"\r\n" +document.frmWristband.txtCompany.value+ "\r\n"));

Labels and receipts withRhoElements and Zebra QLn320• Zebra’s popular QL family ofdirect thermal mobile labelprinters represents one of themost popular choices in theindustry, therefore developersof enterprise solutions oftencome across it.• It supports CPCL language,therefore it can be used withAPD.

How to create the a receipt orlabel template file

Done!! 0 200 200 414 1PW 487TONE 0SPEED 4ON-FEED IGNORENO-PACEBAR-SENSET 4 0 119 83 $$[1]$$T 4 0 119 156 $$[2]$$BT 7 0 0B F39 1 30 111 36 273 $$[1]$$3PRINT

How to name the template?• As the QLn320 is a C53-type printer toAPD, we can name the template as“receipt.C53”

code snippet• function printReceipt(){}apd.PSExternal(261, btPrinterId);alert(apd.PSExternalEx(266,"$$[CMD:0101,1]$$\r\nreceipt\r\n" +document.frmWristband.txtName.value +"\r\n" +document.frmWristband.txtCompany.value +"\r\n"));

Don’t miss out!• Tomorrow:• Deploying Web Apps natively (10:50, Queens)• Using RhoStudio to build Cross-platform Apps(13:30, Queens)• Thursday:• Using device capabilities in yourRhoElements Application (15:20, Queens)

THANK YOU!Q&A