Hi All!
I’m a web developer with PHP+MYSQL. Now, my new project is web based travel ticket sales.
I’m using Dot Matrix Printer (Panasonic KX-p1150) to print out my tickets.
Tickets are on continuous form paper. Each ticket 3 inch height.
I want to print a ticket over web browser. I don’t want windows’s print dialog. Because that is too slow and difficult.
I want to use printer “directly” (raw printing?).
Is anybody know how can I print directly to printer?
Can’t do this in a web environment (at least without ActiveX AFIAK). You don’t have that kind of control over the browser or the user’s system. And that’s a good thing.
I saw some website that can do this with activeX.
Do you know any ActiveX that can do this?
Do you know any FREE ActiveX that can do this?
This is looking good: http://www.vbgold.com/index.shtml#RawDataPrinter
It works under windows. I also want linux version.
Do you know any FREE alternative?
I assume this is a Internet Explorer only intranet or something? ActiveX is only supported by IE. There might be plugins for other browsers, but that is nothing that the average user has installed.
Unless this is an internal application (intranet) you don’t have a viable solution. ActiveX only works in IE and you can bet that IE will send up a big warning message if you try to install that ActiveX control causing most people to decline allowing it to run.
And ActiveX only works in IE and on Windows.
Hmm…
If you can rely on each user having a Panasonic KX-p1150, maybe you can specify “only works on the following system: windows/ie/blah blah etc etc”
As I said this project is web based travel ticket sales. My application will run on internet, because my ticket sales offices nearly 10 differant city.
I’ll accept only my sales persons to my site. So, It will work like intranet application over internet 
My application will run on internet
Ok, imagine for a moment that what you want to do is possible for your web page. If it is possible for your web page, then it is possible for other web pages as well. Would you ever surf the internet with a browser that could suddenly instruct your printer to print out 10,000 pages of ads?
Just a quick qualification: ActiveX is only available with Internet Explorer on Windows (IE runs fine on Linux under Wine or Crossover Office, but without the security problems of ActiveX).
ActiveX is only available with Internet Explorer on Windows
Not only Internet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox can support ActiveX components using a special plugin. Please take a look here:
And you have to get all of your users to install it. Good luck.
That plug-in has been around for some time, but is about as popular as a fly in a punchbowl. Those smart enough to switch to Mozilla/Firefox are rarely dumb enough to defeat its improved security by opening the ActiveX hole.
:x
vediam,
In regards to your question regarding Linux: Since there are a variety of print facilities available on most Linux installations, such as kprinter or CUPS, I should expect it would be difficult to find a way to bypass the print dialog through a browser. Even using a quick print choice in Acrobat or OOo, one is characteristically at least prompted to select the print facility one wants to route the job through.
That’s not to say it couldn’t be done, but it would probably involve customization of configuration files and would, almost certainly, require a different solution for each browser. I have to wonder if something like Flash might not provide the best alternative, though I have little knowledge of using Flash in such a context.