(858) 586 7777 | About | Testimonials | Contact
vteams vteams vteams vteams
  • How does it work?
    • Startup Process
    • Your First Day
  • Technologies
    • Hire PHP Developer
    • Hire App Developer
    • Hire JavaScript Developer
    • Hire ROR Developer
    • Hire IOS Developer
    • Hire .NET Developer
    • Hire AI Developer
    • Hire Robotics Engineer
  • Sample Budgets
  • Meet The Team
  • Experiments
  • Captain’s Log
  • Blog
vteams vteams
  • How does it work?
    • Startup Process
    • Your First Day
  • Technologies
    • Hire PHP Developer
    • Hire App Developer
    • Hire JavaScript Developer
    • Hire ROR Developer
    • Hire IOS Developer
    • Hire .NET Developer
    • Hire AI Developer
    • Hire Robotics Engineer
  • Sample Budgets
  • Meet The Team
  • Experiments
  • Captain’s Log
  • Blog
Blog
  1. vteams
  2. Blog
  3. Getting Creative With Printing: The iOS Dilemma
May 01

Getting Creative With Printing: The iOS Dilemma

  • May 1, 2015

We deal with many cut-and-dry projects. Occasionally, however, we’re approached with a concept that’s slightly outside-of-the-box.

Recently, we were asked to develop a point-of-sale application for one client who needed to print sales and credit card authorization slips from an attached network (LAN) printer. This idea was born of the need for a more cost-effective, scalable solution than the generic function that is most similar, found in Apple’s AirPrint.

We jumped on our options.

There are several ways to integrate printers in iOS. AirPrint allows the user to do so without wires and without a need for drivers. However, AirPrint-native printers tend to be rather expensive.

Our second possibility is to integrate a specific brand of printer using its unique software development kit. While cheaper than AirPrint printers, this configuration meant that we’d need to get our hands on specific equipment; it always wasn’t scalable.

Finally, we approached the socket programming option. Printers are connected via network IP, which allows that printer to support text printouts exclusively; no styling or font options, and absolutely no HTML formatting. Not the most appealing of situations but we had additional tricks in our hat.

Establishing a connection with the network printer using port number and IP address, eradicating any need to purchase an AirPrint-compatible printer. Our client was able to use ordinary network printers of his choosing.

Take that, Apple.

Our challenge was creating a function for data communication to each printer in question, in a format consistent with our client’s requirements. We delved in to format this string of text data prior to sending it to each printer, enabling it to communicate with different network printers possessing the same port number, as the application allowed each user to send prints to different printers at the same time using their IP addresses.

It wasn’t a solution that popped out to us immediately but it was the best solution given our clients needs. Sometimes, a little creativity is necessary – even in development.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • E-Mail

Comments are closed.

SEARCH BLOG

Categories

  • Blog (490)
  • Captain's Log (1)
  • Closure Reports (45)
  • Experiments (7)
  • How-To (56)
  • Implementation Notes (148)
  • Learn More (156)
  • LMS (8)
  • Look Inside (10)
  • Operations Log (12)
  • Programmer Notes (20)
  • R&D (14)
  • Rescue Log (4)
  • Testimonials (25)
  • Uncategorized (4)

RECENT STORIES

  • GitHub Actions- Automate your software workflows with excellence
  • Yii Framework – Accomplish Repetitive & Iterative Projects with Ease
  • A Recipe for CRM Software Development
  • Are Agile and DevOps the same?
  • The Data Scientist’s Toolset

ARCHIVES

In Short

With the vteams model, you bypass the middleman and hire your own offshore engineers - they work exclusively for you. You pay a reasonable monthly wage and get the job done without hassles, re-negotiations, feature counts or budget overruns.

Goals for 2020

  • Open development center in Australia
  • Complete and Launch the Robot
  • Structural changes to better address Clients' needs

Contact Us

Address: NEXTWERK INC.
6790 Embarcadero Ln, Ste 100,
Carlsbad, CA 92011, USA

Tel: (858) 586 7777
Email: fahad@nextwerk.com
Web: www.vteams.com

© 2020 vteams. All Rights Reserved.

Content Protection by DMCA.com