Reading status from Zebra Printer

Question

I\'m working on a project where we need to use a Zebra Printer for barcode labels. We\'re using C#, and we\'re doing OK on the printing side of things, sending raw ZPL stri

Answer 1

I'm facing the same problem. Did you already manage anything on this subject?

Ax Perez Parra Castro, this is how I did it:

-get the RawPrinterHelper class from here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322091

-my printer (zebra 2030) doesn't support ZPL, so as far as I know the only way is to send unicode to it

-I made a list of characters I need e.g.

string enq = Convert.ToChar(5).ToString();
string esc = Convert.ToChar(27).ToString();
string nul = Convert.ToChar(0).ToString();
string rs = Convert.ToChar(30).ToString();
string lf = Convert.ToChar(10).ToString();
string cr = Convert.ToChar(13).ToString();

(get those int values from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII)

-compose the command - e.g. sb.Append(esc + enq + Convert.ToChar(7).ToString()); (from the printer manual, the command < ESC>< ENQ><7> should get the firmware version)

-send the command RawPrinterHelper.SendStringToPrinter(printerName, sb.ToString()); (printerName in my case is "Zebra TTP 2030")

Answer 2

About 15 years ago I wrote software to print throught Zebra printers.

At the time we communicated with the printer over RS-232 (? standard serial comms), which worked well, all information came back from the printer in a timely and accurate fashion.

Recently I'd to work with Epson tally printers, and found the windows printer drivers clumsy and inefficient. I dropped down a level and communicated directly with the printer through GDI, and everything worked to my satisification.

I say take out the middle man, if you drop down a level and communicate with the printer directly, rather than communicating through windows printer drivers, you'll have more success.

Hope this helps,

Answer 3

If you have the chance to use kernel32.dll and leaving out the usb-driver-bound winspool.srv you could use this vanilla approach:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using Microsoft.Win32.SafeHandles;

{
    public class USB
    {
        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern Int32 CancelIo(SafeFileHandle hFile);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern IntPtr CreateEvent(IntPtr SecurityAttributes,
                                                  Boolean bManualReset,
                                                  Boolean bInitialState,
                                                  String lpName);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern Boolean GetOverlappedResult(SafeFileHandle hFile,
                                                           IntPtr lpOverlapped,
                                                           ref Int32 lpNumberOfBytesTransferred,
                                                           Boolean bWait);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern Boolean ReadFile(SafeFileHandle hFile,
                                                IntPtr lpBuffer,
                                                Int32 nNumberOfBytesToRead,
                                                ref Int32 lpNumberOfBytesRead,
                                                IntPtr lpOverlapped);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern Int32 WaitForSingleObject(IntPtr hHandle,
                                                         Int32 dwMilliseconds);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        internal static extern SafeFileHandle CreateFile(String lpFileName,
                                                         UInt32 dwDesiredAccess,
                                                         Int32 dwShareMode,
                                                         IntPtr lpSecurityAttributes,
                                                         Int32 dwCreationDisposition,
                                                         Int32 dwFlagsAndAttributes,
                                                         Int32 hTemplateFile);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        internal static extern Boolean WriteFile(SafeFileHandle hFile,
                                                 ref byte lpBuffer,
                                                 Int32 nNumberOfBytesToWrite,
                                                 ref Int32 lpNumberOfBytesWritten,
                                                 IntPtr lpOverlapped);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern int GetLastError();

        private const Int32 FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED = 0X40000000;
        private const Int32 FILE_SHARE_READ = 1;
        private const Int32 FILE_SHARE_WRITE = 2;
        private const UInt32 GENERIC_READ = 0X80000000;
        private const UInt32 GENERIC_WRITE = 0X40000000;
        private const Int32 OPEN_EXISTING = 3;
        private const Int32 WAIT_OBJECT_0 = 0;
        private const Int32 WAIT_TIMEOUT = 0x102;
        private const Int32 ReadBufferSize = 200;

        private readonly string _devicePathName;

        public USB(string devicePathName)
        {
            this._devicePathName = devicePathName;
        }

        public void Send(string data)
        {
            var bData = this.Encoding.GetBytes(data);
            this.Send(bData);
        }

        public void Send(byte[] data)
        {
            try
            {
                var eventObject = CreateEvent(IntPtr.Zero,
                                              false,
                                              false,
                                              String.Empty);
                var hidOverlapped = GetHidOverlapped(eventObject);

                var unManagedBuffer = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(data.Length);
                var unManagedOverlapped = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(hidOverlapped));
                Marshal.StructureToPtr(hidOverlapped,
                                       unManagedOverlapped,
                                       false);

                using (var writeHandle = this.GetWriteFileHandle())
                {
                    var numberOfBytesWritten = 0;
                    var success = WriteFile(writeHandle,
                                            ref data[0],
                                            data.Length,
                                            ref numberOfBytesWritten,
                                            unManagedOverlapped);
                    if (!success)
                    {
                        var result = WaitForSingleObject(eventObject,
                                                         100);
                        switch (result)
                        {
                            case WAIT_OBJECT_0:
                                success = true;
                                break;
                            case WAIT_TIMEOUT:
                                CancelIo(writeHandle);
                                break;
                        }
                    }
                }

                Marshal.FreeHGlobal(unManagedOverlapped);
                Marshal.FreeHGlobal(unManagedBuffer);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                // TODO add logging and enhance the try/catch-closure to a smaller one
            }
        }

        private Encoding Encoding
        {
            get
            {
                return Encoding.ASCII;
            }
        }

        public string Read()
        {
            var receivedBytes = 0;
            var receiveBuffer = new byte[ReadBufferSize];

            string data;

            try
            {
                var eventObject = CreateEvent(IntPtr.Zero,
                                              false,
                                              false,
                                              String.Empty);
                var hidOverlapped = GetHidOverlapped(eventObject);

                var unManagedBuffer = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(ReadBufferSize);
                var unManagedOverlapped = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(hidOverlapped));

                Marshal.StructureToPtr(hidOverlapped,
                                       unManagedOverlapped,
                                       false);

                using (var readHandle = CreateFile(this._devicePathName,
                                                   GENERIC_READ,
                                                   FILE_SHARE_READ /* | FILE_SHARE_WRITE*/,
                                                   IntPtr.Zero,
                                                   OPEN_EXISTING,
                                                   FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED,
                                                   0))
                {
                    var success = ReadFile(readHandle,
                                           unManagedBuffer,
                                           receiveBuffer.Length,
                                           ref receivedBytes,
                                           unManagedOverlapped);
                    if (!success)
                    {
                        var result1 = WaitForSingleObject(eventObject,
                                                          300);
                        switch (result1)
                        {
                            case WAIT_OBJECT_0:
                                GetOverlappedResult(readHandle,
                                                    unManagedOverlapped,
                                                    ref receivedBytes,
                                                    false);
                                break;
                            case WAIT_TIMEOUT:
                            default:
                                //CancelIo(_readHandle);
                                break;
                        }
                    }
                }

                if (receivedBytes > 0)
                {
                    Array.Resize(ref receiveBuffer,
                                 receivedBytes);
                    Marshal.Copy(unManagedBuffer,
                                 receiveBuffer,
                                 0,
                                 receivedBytes);
                    data = this.Encoding.GetString(receiveBuffer);
                }
                else
                {
                    data = null;
                }

                Marshal.FreeHGlobal(unManagedOverlapped);
                Marshal.FreeHGlobal(unManagedBuffer);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                // TODO add logging and enhance the try/catch-closure to a smaller one
                data = null;
            }

            return data;
        }

        private SafeFileHandle GetWriteFileHandle()
        {
            var writeHandle = CreateFile(this._devicePathName,
                                         GENERIC_WRITE | GENERIC_READ,
                                         FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE,
                                         IntPtr.Zero,
                                         OPEN_EXISTING,
                                         0,
                                         0);

            return writeHandle;
        }

        private static NativeOverlapped GetHidOverlapped(IntPtr eventObject)
        {
            return new NativeOverlapped
            {
                OffsetLow = 0,
                OffsetHigh = 0,
                EventHandle = eventObject
            };
        }
    }
}

Otherwise there's a solution available (it's VB.NET though) (but I can't tell if this works with ZPL/EPL/fingerprint/...-printers) which uses GetPrinter with PRINTER_INFO_2.
There's also a translation at pinvoke.net available.

Answer 4

ReadPrinter will not help in this situation. It will read back the print job you have submitted to the printer, not the printer's response. However, for the sake of completeness: In order to use ReadPrinter, you must open the printer again, using the combined "printer name - job id" syntax:

OpenPrinter("Zebra,Job 12345", ...);
ReadPrinter(hPrinter, ...);

This will only work if the job 12345 has not been removed yet.

---

As for answering the question, you have to use WriteFile to send data and ReadFile to get the response. To use those functions, you need to open the printer with CreateFile. After you've done that, the rest is absolutely trivial.

The problem here is getting the device path that must be passed to CreateFile in order to open the printer. If your printer is an LPT one, that's as simple as "LPT:", but for a USB printer you have to obtain the device path, which looks like this:

\\?\usb#vid_0a5f&pid_0027#46a072900549#{28d78fad-5a12-11d1-ae5b-0000f803a8c2}

I have found a way to obtain this path, but it only works if you have just one printer installed. If you have more, you will need a relation between the device path and the printer name you see in the control panel, and that relation is something I haven't figured yet. I've created a question for that: Figuring which printer name corresponds to which device ID.

Answer 5

I have used TCP/IP communication with C++, and I was able to response from the print engine.