Has anyone developed a plugin for printer status monitoring?

MMirage · 2006-12-21, 08:01 AM

Hi'ya!

I'm developing a kiosk application, and part of my design specs are to have the application poll the thermal printer every so often to check its status (is it jammed? running low on paper? etc.).

The printer is a Swecoin TTP7030, fairly generic for kiosks, and they do support this kind of functionality. But I'm wondering if somebody out there has already done this.

I'm hoping not to have to reinvent the wheel, especially as Windows is definitely not my specialty. *groan*

northcode · 2006-12-21, 09:48 AM

A few seconds with Google and I came up with this...

http://www.swecoinus.com/support/developers.html

MMirage · 2006-12-21, 09:54 AM

Hi Tim,

Thanks for taking the time to look it up for me. Unfortunately, I've already got this information...

What I'm hoping to find is someone who has already done this before (or something very similar). I'd rather have something tested and proven rather than create something from scratch on my own.

And "on my own" is a rather loose term, because I haven't got the foggiest how to go about programming for Windows. I'm a mac addict, myself. *grin*

Ideally I would like a plugin for SWF Studio, or else a small background app that generates an xml or variable file that I can then scan periodically and fire off a status report to my web server.

northcode · 2006-12-21, 10:11 AM

I haven't read the document fully, but the PDF on that page would seem to indicate that you can get the info about the printer status using GetPrinterData (standard Windows API function). You call GetPrinterData and it stuffs all the status information into the registry so you can retrieve it (which you can do with SWF Studio). Developing a plugin for this should just require wrapping the call to GetPrinterData, the rest of the work could be done in Flash with SWF Studio.

2006-12-21, 08:01 AM	#1
MMirage Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cambridge, Ontario, Canada Posts: 12	Has anyone developed a plugin for printer status monitoring? Hi'ya! I'm developing a kiosk application, and part of my design specs are to have the application poll the thermal printer every so often to check its status (is it jammed? running low on paper? etc.). The printer is a Swecoin TTP7030, fairly generic for kiosks, and they do support this kind of functionality. But I'm wondering if somebody out there has already done this. I'm hoping not to have to reinvent the wheel, especially as Windows is definitely not my specialty. groan __________________ ... mmirage

2006-12-21, 09:54 AM	#3
MMirage Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cambridge, Ontario, Canada Posts: 12	Hi Tim, Thanks for taking the time to look it up for me. Unfortunately, I've already got this information... What I'm hoping to find is someone who has already done this before (or something very similar). I'd rather have something tested and proven rather than create something from scratch on my own. And "on my own" is a rather loose term, because I haven't got the foggiest how to go about programming for Windows. I'm a mac addict, myself. grin Ideally I would like a plugin for SWF Studio, or else a small background app that generates an xml or variable file that I can then scan periodically and fire off a status report to my web server. __________________ ... mmirage

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2006-12-21, 09:48 AM	#2
northcode Tim Join Date: May 2001 Location: Ottawa Posts: 11,873	A few seconds with Google and I came up with this... http://www.swecoinus.com/support/developers.html

2006-12-21, 10:11 AM	#4
northcode Tim Join Date: May 2001 Location: Ottawa Posts: 11,873	I haven't read the document fully, but the PDF on that page would seem to indicate that you can get the info about the printer status using GetPrinterData (standard Windows API function). You call GetPrinterData and it stuffs all the status information into the registry so you can retrieve it (which you can do with SWF Studio). Developing a plugin for this should just require wrapping the call to GetPrinterData, the rest of the work could be done in Flash with SWF Studio.