Can I use any bluetooth printer with Windows Phone 8? - c#

I am developing an application where I have to print information because of that I am using a AP1300 this is a bluetooth printer but nothing happens. Do I need an specific kind of printer for doing so,thanks for your answers.

Such printer needs Drivers. And as you can see on the website, WP8 is not (yet?) supported.

It is possible, but it requires a fair amount of low-level RS232/Serial code and might not work with your specific printer. See Can I print with windows phone 8 using Bluetooth to a portable printer? for a few suggestions and links.
First obstacle is whether your phone can pair with the printer. If you can't, the printer uses a BT profile not supported by your phone. If it can you might be able to write code against it, provided the pairing is using a profile you can write code against, and you can figure out the correct commands required to send to the printer (look up developer doc for the printer if available).
Lastly only apps that you write will work (or if someone else wrote an app for your printer). You won't find any support for any of the built-in apps, so no printing of emails, word documents etc.

Related

How to print document to Bluetooth printer from windows mobile 5 in C#

I am new to windows mobile development and searching for how to print document to Bluetooth printer using C#.Net. I have go through some blogs but not sure from where to start.
Below are the some information I found
Zebra provides an SDK for Windows mobile which has many examples, short sample applications, and even a demo utility. You just simply call the APIs provided and the SDK will make the proper connection to the printer via Bluetooth (or TCP) for you.
- But I am not sure whether its free to use?
Please help me to find better option for printing on bluetooth printer from windows mobile device.
Thanks in advance
-Nitin
Using the Zebra SDK is free. It is a fast an easy way to use there printer on windows mobile. But you are stuck to Zebra (if you ever change the printer vendor that might be an issue) and what there SDK provides.
You can go the free way and start your own printing lib and have full control over the code:
Before you can start printing, you need a connection to the printer. For Bluetooth you can use other free SDKs (with free source code) like inTheHand (32feet.net).
Further on you have to start learning the Zebra printer's language. That may be, for example, ZPL. You need to send commands to the printer to get something out.
Bluetooth printer can be connected to Windows Mobile (WM) by using a socket or a virtual COM port.
Starting with virtual COM port is an easier approach, just call registerDevice with the right args to get back a new virtual COM port you can use to communicate with the printer. A problem may occur, if the printer requests a PIN. I did not yet find a native way to set this PIN from code and used 32feet libs to overcome this.
You may also use TCP/IP socket programming to communicate with the printer. If the printer is already paired with the WM device, it is an easy task: https://github.com/hjgode/btprint using a lot of MS BT API.
If you are not familar with printer languages like ZPL, ESC/P and need to print text only, you may consider using the commercial PrinterCE SDK. It frees you from knowing all the bits and bytes of printing languages.
You can find some demo BT/VCOM printing code at http://code.google.com/p/win-mobile-code/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2FCommAppCFbtSearch%253Fstate%253Dclosed (CommApp... folders).

Need an Info TWAIN and WIA Drivers to scan an Image in C#?

I had some questions in this scanner using WIA or TWAIN in C#.net. We are planning to buy Kodak i920 Scanner to scan Image through our Application in C#. My questions are
1 . Is it possible to scan an image in single click by using any one of the drivers. ( I dont want select device dialog and image settings dialog)
Some scanners has inbuilt OCR functionality. can i use that OCR function programatically of that scanners. So that when i click on OCR button the scanner has to scan an do an OCR and revert me back. Is it possible to do this?
Yep. You certainly could do all of that provided you could be certain that the same scanner was going to be available for every scan so that you could always just force use of the device you wanted. You can also pass along the settings you'd like the device to make use of provided that the device says they're supported. A number of SDKs either free/opensource or proprietary exist that would allow you to do that in c# -- Atalasoft, Dynamsoft, and Twain.Net provide one to name a few.

How to detect Bluetooth activated laptops in range in Windows using C#

I'm interested in creating a wireless network of laptops using Bluetooth developed in C#.
I want to get the list of Bluetooth activated devices in range ( preferable computers, not dongles, headsets or phones). I don't think I need to use a Bluetooth adapter specific stack coz I have seen Windows searching for Bluetooth devices in range. How can I run such a search in my C# app and list the computers in range?
Please help me to do this, also let me know if my effort is wrong. Thank you.
There is a nice C# Bluetooth library available in 32feet.NET.
If you have no need for any of the additional features it offers and you wish to do the P/Invoke on your own, documentation can be found here; specifically the BluetoothFindFirstDevice and BluetoothFindNextDevice for device discovery.
Additionally, you can use windows sockets to do device/service discovery. Information on that can be found here.
If you wish to specifically filter out types of Bluetooth devices, you will want to look at the ulClassOfDevice field in the BluetoothDeviceInfo.

.NET compact framework - barcode scanner

I have Motorola MC55 with Windows Mobile 6.5 on-board. This nice palm contains also an embedded bar-code scanner. My question is - Will I need anything special in .NET CF in order to use the bar-code scanner? I would expect that the bar-code are read as normal strings and delivered as keyboard events? Is any special .NET CF library necessary?
Thanks for help
Dominik
That entirely depends on what you want to achieve.
Handheld barcode scanners based on Windows Mobile usually come with a piece of software that translates barcode module output to keystrokes -- you can put it in the autorun folder and then handle text input in your textbox.
Alternatively, there's usually an SDK that contains libraries with which you can hook the scanner directly and have all the additional information (type of the barcode, binary data etc).
We use MC9090 here, and we went the SDK way. Works like a charm. The SDK can be dowloaded here. If the link doesn't work (I had to crop it), go to the seach form and search for "SDK".
Usually, for Motorola (earlier Symbol) scanners there's a set of libraries for the Comapact Framework including samples.
We use mobile devices a lot with our customers (not only Motorola) and I strongly advise against using keyboard emulation if possible, as you will run into trouble when there are multiple input fields (or no input fields at all). Also, you will not be able to detect special characters within barcodes when you get them through keyboard emulation.
Link to SDK is provided by GSerg in his answer. I strongly recommend using the SDK as it provides access to other device functionality as well.
There's a utility for these devices called DataWedge that lets you treat the built-in scanner as a keyboard device.

.NET Compact Framework Printing libraries

Can anyone point to libraries that can be used for Printing from Compact .Net Framework 1.0?
Criteria:
I need to be able to print Text and Bar codes.
The library should preferably be upgradable to .Net 2.0 or above with minimal disruption.
Can be either Open Source [that can be distributed as part of Commercial application] or that can be purchased.
Edit
More information:
We are an ISV and this application is sold to our customers.
This application is usually installed on Symbol, Opticon devices. But occasionally this is installed on a generic Windows Mobile PDA or Phone devices.
I want the library to work with Printers from multiple vendors. [I now have printers from O'Neil and Citizen-Systems for testing].
We want the printers to be connected using bluetooth. I guess the library should in general work with any serial port connections.
PrinterCE.NetCF from FieldSoftware appears to fit the bill. Thanks ctacke. I am looking for something similar.
Thanks,
Kishore
You've not given us much detail, like the device you're using or the printer type you want to print to (local, lan, serial, network, etc), however I'll see if I can at least point you in the right direction.
The de-facto standard for CF printing is PrinterCE from Field Software. PrintBoy from Bachmann Software also works well. I'm not certain if eitehr has the ability to print barcodes though.
Now if you're printing barcodes, that suggests that you're using a device like a Symbol (now Motorola) or Intermec handheld. If that is the case then those manufacturers have their own SDKs that allow printing.
If you are printing to something like a Zebra barcode printer, they typically have some serial PCL commands for printing barcodes as well, so you don't actually need to "print" the barcode. Instead you send the PCL command to tell the printer that the data should be output a barcode instead of text. The printer manufacturer can provide a PCL reference, as the PCL for these types of things isn't standardized.

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