Hardware integration - direct printing, USB devices from web

ERPNext Feature Requests
1

I have a particular need for tighter printing integration within ERPNext. I have been looking at various 3rd party solutions and reading up on the topic, but I think it’s something that should become native to ERPNext.

In particular this involves direct printing to printers bypassing the windows/browser prompts. Direct to printer.

This is something that is useful for the POS application as well as inside the ERP for printing labels direct to thermal printers such as Zebras, Epsons, etc. This is also known as RAW printing (ZPL/EPL etc).

There is also the possibility of integrating USB support for devices that transmit information such as USB scales.

I would like to share some resources from some products as well as open source and forum posts I have found while researching the topic to see if its something that could be implemented.

https://www.printnode.com/ - Allows for direct and remote printing from the application. Also supports reading from USB scales ( Reading Scales Over the Internet | PrintNode ) - Also note this comparison between printnode and google cloud print here: https://www.printnode.com/docs/printnode-vs-google/

Jzebra/ qz.io - https://qz.io/ and GitHub - qzind/qz-print: Archive for legacy qz-print versions (1.8, 1.9). See https://github.com/qzind/tray for modern versions. - Similar to printnode. Can print and read from usb scales.

Discussion on the zebra website regarding printing from the web: https://developer.zebra.com/community/technologies/printers/label-printers/blog/2015/03/31/printing-from-websites-part-2

I can add more to this later, but I wanted to get an initial idea to see if this is something that would be considered.

4 Likes
2

As a committer, yes this surely will be considered. Again, we are happy to accept contributions from everyone as long as quality & usability standards are maintained

3

I am not a developer, but I am glad to contribute research, findings and opinions from the information I continue to gather. What would it take to get something like this integrated even if it’s a basic implementation of only the print service?

4

@jpp Community developers are currently putting together a plan to integrate the printing functionality you are talking about. The use of scales has not been requested before (to the best of my knowledge) as such you would need to employ a Developer to code this for you. I expect news relating to the print functionality to get posted here as it progresses.

5

I think it should go hand in hand with a set of hardware integration. Scales, barcode scanners, printers, cash drawers, digital signature pads, etc.

For the printing - who in particular is working on this? Is there a thread with updates on it, perhaps I can provide feedback on other implementations?

The printing in particular is useful for 3 key components I can think of and maybe more: POS, Warehousing tags/Price printing and for shipping.

6

It is being discussed here:
https://github.com/frappe/erpnext/issues/4596
There is also discussion on how to organise/pay developers into the proposed ERPNext Foundation.

7

Is direct printing supported now? or is it in roadmap?

1 Like
8

:confused:

9

take a look at direct printing through chrome. Its not perfect, but may do 90% of what you need.

https://mycartpos.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200868343-Enable-kiosk-printing-print-automatically-for-Google-Chrome-on-Windows