On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 8:00 PM, Tony Marston <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > wrote: > > "Paul M Foster" <paulf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message > news:20090120151606.GU18160@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > I'd like a side check on what I'm doing to print on our internal > > network. > > > > We have an internal server/site which uses PHP code I've written to > > "run" the business-- invoicing, A/P, inventory, etc. Some things, like > > invoices and reports, need to be printed. Now remember, the code is on > > the server, and we access it from our client machines on our desks. When > > we print, we do so to our local printers, attached to the client > > machines. > > > > So the best way I could think of to making printing work was to generate > > PDFs of whatever needs to be printed, dump the PDF on the server, and > > provide a link to the PDF on the web page. The user clicks on the > > generated PDF, and his/her browser opens up Acrobat or xpdf, and prints > > from that application to their local machine. > > > > Is that a reasonable way to implement this? Any better ideas? > > I have built an application similar to yours, and I have solved the > printing > problem by using software from the following two companies: > http://www.nicelabel.com and http://www.namtuk.com/autoprintemail.aspx > > Basically the user runs a web page which generates the required report, in > either XML or PDF format (I believe others are available) and sends an > email > which identifies a particular client printer. At the client end, with any > number of PCs and printers, there is a piece of software running which > looks > for these emails, and when one is received it sends the print to the > designated printer. Each report can be tailored to output to any printer, > including a specific printer for each user. This means that the user does > not see the generated report in his web browser and then have to press the > PRINT key and choose the printer before it gets printed. He simply presses > a > "Generate Report" button, and within a few seconds it is sent to the > printer. > > It's not free, but it's worth the money (IMHO). > > -- > Tony Marston > http://www.tonymarston.net > http://www.radicore.org > > > Paul > > > > -- > > Paul M. Foster > > > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > I still like dompdf from http://www.digitaljunkies.ca<http://www.digitaljunkies.com> -- Bastien Cat, the other other white meat
