RE: [PHP] remote printing?

Just wanted to pass along another solution for you to consider... I don't know if you want the orders to print out as soon as they are recieved... Or if you want to have somebody run a "packslip" type of program so that they can create pick slips to get the items and then pack them up... What I recently did for a customer of mine was use the PDFlib functions to create PDFs of the orders to be shipped. It is extremly dynamic and the PDF files actually can be created in memory so they don't need to be stored on the HD of the server. Another suggestion: NETCAT.... It is a program that functions much like cat does (at the command line) but works well with printing to JetDirect cards... (JetDirect is not a typical socket connection as it must remain open on one side to indicate that the job is printing and then close that side of it once it is done... At least that is what I recall about it). I do know that it is not your typical connection though... The one problem I encoutnered though was that size of the variables can push your alignment of your document all over the place... So you have to run checks to see if the info contained in the variable is a ceratin length... etc... It is a pain... Using PDFs on the other hand is a god send... You can embed jpgs and tiffs (logos perhaps) on the invoices... Draw lines, boxes, circles, etc... Plus the entire page is setup like an X,Y grid... Just point your "pen" (or pointer) to a certain X,Y coordinate and then output your text... You can even print text ontop of text if you desire... Only problem with PDFlib is you must compile it into your PHP install... I love it... and I am trying to think of new ways to use it. :-) Take care... HTH Tom Walsh http://www.designgeek.com/ Hey, i need a solution for a catering company that would automatically print out the orders on their kitchen printer. They get their orders from web, and they're stored in several mySQL tables. Somebody told me that the Kron module (for scheduled mySQL queries) and JetDirect can be the solution, but I don't know anything else about it? Any suggestions?