Solved: Printing Solutions within AppSheet

rdawson · 03-22-2023 02:40 PM

I wanted to ask out here for any ideas I haven't tried.

My application is used by a Bakery to take orders. Printing out order has been a challenge.

1. You can't print directly from within AppSheet.

2. You can save a pdf or html file to a Google Drive and print from there.

3. However you must print every order out individually

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Possible Solution:

1. I have been working with Zapier and ezeep print to find new files and print. However, this has proven to be not bullet proof. The ezeep process sometimes doesn't work and requires troubleshooting.

2. I have also been looking at PIpedream to find some automations.

3. I haven't looked at Appscript yet, that might be my next option.

Just wanted to check to see if anyone has solved this problem.

Thanks.

rdawson

Here's the update to my Printing from AppSheet exploration.

My customer is a bakery so printing out orders quickly is most important.

1. First I tried to print directly to the email service for the printer. In development I printed to an HP LaserJet series. It worked pretty good but there was some delay. When I went to the bakery, they printed on Brother-MFC printers. The print service hung, so I realized immediately that this would not work.

2. On the Brother MFC printers, there is an integration with DropBox and Google Drive. I started to work on this solution. The AppSheet process would just need to save the files out in the same folder. The Baker could go to the printer and select from a shortcut the folder, press the file and release the print job.

This was the solution I thought would be best, however would require two things:

1. Removing the old print pdf files. This could be done in AppScript.

2. Merging all of the files together so there is just one print job for multiple orders. PDF.co would be able to do this.

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But the Bakery manager wanted to print without any Baker intervention.

3. PrintNode., email to the PrintNode server. This would require us to purchase a mini-PC to run PrintNode. But this is the fastest and most reliable solution. (If you remember to add noreply@appsheet) to the 'whitelist' for the PrintNode email process.

I do think #2 is a nice solution if there was one job a day or something very small. But Marc Dillon was correct, (Thanks). PrintNode is used everywhere for a reason. It's also incredibly inexpensive, $9 for 5,000 print jobs a month.

View solution in original post

Marc_Dillon

If your printer supports email-to-print, use that.

If not, download the printnode client on a local machine that is always connected to the printer, and you can use printnode's email-to-print option. (50 prints per month or less are free)

rdawson

Thanks. I'll give that a try and update the group.

rdawson

Here's the update to my Printing from AppSheet exploration.

My customer is a bakery so printing out orders quickly is most important.

1. First I tried to print directly to the email service for the printer. In development I printed to an HP LaserJet series. It worked pretty good but there was some delay. When I went to the bakery, they printed on Brother-MFC printers. The print service hung, so I realized immediately that this would not work.

2. On the Brother MFC printers, there is an integration with DropBox and Google Drive. I started to work on this solution. The AppSheet process would just need to save the files out in the same folder. The Baker could go to the printer and select from a shortcut the folder, press the file and release the print job.

This was the solution I thought would be best, however would require two things:

1. Removing the old print pdf files. This could be done in AppScript.

2. Merging all of the files together so there is just one print job for multiple orders. PDF.co would be able to do this.

--------

But the Bakery manager wanted to print without any Baker intervention.

3. PrintNode., email to the PrintNode server. This would require us to purchase a mini-PC to run PrintNode. But this is the fastest and most reliable solution. (If you remember to add noreply@appsheet) to the 'whitelist' for the PrintNode email process.

I do think #2 is a nice solution if there was one job a day or something very small. But Marc Dillon was correct, (Thanks). PrintNode is used everywhere for a reason. It's also incredibly inexpensive, $9 for 5,000 print jobs a month.

Amjad

You can save a pdf or html file to a Google Drive and print from there.

Its the only solution and it's takes couple of seconds and as long you have the link to your pdf in your app you can open from Appsheet and print.

jhonnym62

do you have demo video?

I currently use this method but it only works for mobile https://youtu.be/LMwUEdIRB8M

Hocappsheet

https://youtu.be/dZ1mn3ETs98