Server Side Printing?

Hello,

I have a page that I need to be able to print on the web server. This is a network printer, that I would like to be able to print to via IP address. If need be, I can set it up on an LPT port.

I've found a few examples online, but I haven't had any luck with those. 

Anyone able to help?

Thanks a bunch!

IUSER_ASP needs permissions for the printer.

Depends what you mean by pre-formatted.

You can use the common VB escape sequences like carriage return, line feeds, tabs, etc within the string you send to the printer. You can also encode the specific printer escape sequences to send machine level commands to the printer which uses some version of PCL (Printer Control Language).

Web pages are actually printed by the browser which takes the html it receives and converts it to PCL to retain the html formatting. That conversion is not something you'd want to script within an asp page.

EDIT: Be aware that you have no way to interface with messages from the printer which is why people seldom use server-side printing. It's possible for an out-of-paper, offline or some other error message that you have to respond to (e.g. click OK) to hang the printer and/or the server.




Edited by dpyers - 22 September 2010 at 10:04pm

Web servers just return raw data (usually text). When the server is returning data to the browser, part of that data includes formatting instructions for the browser (html).

When returning data to a printer, that html would need to be replaced with formatting instructions the printer can recognize (PCL, XPS, or Postscript). PCL instructions are binary and require escape sequences. Postscript instructions are text (like html - but for printers instead of browsers) and require a postscript compatible printer.
XPS is XML Paper Specification and can be used to send the data+Format to either the Printer or the spooler on Vista and Win7 systems. Some printers support XPS directly but they're few and far between.

Other than sending data directly to the printer, you can send data to the windows spooler or to the printer driver (maybe) but it is a bit more complicated.


Ultimately, it sounds like you have a workflow issue. If I understand the situation correctly, you want to store info and print a piece of paper when the user submits the form. The paper is printed somewhere the user isn't for the system administrator to use.

I'd question the need to print the paper in real time. The cost/benefit just isn't good. I would either use MS Access, Excel, or an asp based browser script to suck data off the DB and return it all formatted for printing. The admin could do that whenever they're ready to handle the paper or you could use windows scheduler/script to do it automagically.