Re: Client/Server Printing

"Paul M Foster" <paulf@quillandmouse.com> wrote in message news:20090120151606.GU18160@quillandmouse.com... > I'd like a side check on what I'm doing to print on our internal > network. > > We have an internal server/site which uses PHP code I've written to > "run" the business-- invoicing, A/P, inventory, etc. Some things, like > invoices and reports, need to be printed. Now remember, the code is on > the server, and we access it from our client machines on our desks. When > we print, we do so to our local printers, attached to the client > machines. > > So the best way I could think of to making printing work was to generate > PDFs of whatever needs to be printed, dump the PDF on the server, and > provide a link to the PDF on the web page. The user clicks on the > generated PDF, and his/her browser opens up Acrobat or xpdf, and prints > from that application to their local machine. > > Is that a reasonable way to implement this? Any better ideas? I have built an application similar to yours, and I have solved the printing problem by using software from the following two companies: http://www.nicelabel.com and http://www.namtuk.com/autoprintemail.aspx Basically the user runs a web page which generates the required report, in either XML or PDF format (I believe others are available) and sends an email which identifies a particular client printer. At the client end, with any number of PCs and printers, there is a piece of software running which looks for these emails, and when one is received it sends the print to the designated printer. Each report can be tailored to output to any printer, including a specific printer for each user. This means that the user does not see the generated report in his web browser and then have to press the PRINT key and choose the printer before it gets printed. He simply presses a "Generate Report" button, and within a few seconds it is sent to the printer. It's not free, but it's worth the money (IMHO). -- Tony Marston http://www.tonymarston.net http://www.radicore.org > Paul > > -- > Paul M. Foster