Printers in DinePlan
- Hashmato Team
INTRODUCTION
Printing in DinePlan is very important to Understand. It has three questions to ask and it gives three concepts to connect. The questions
WHERE TO PRINT?
WHAT TO PRINT?
HOW TO PRINT?
PRINTER are the places to print the Content and It gives the Answer for the first question. PRINT TEMPLATES determinates what to print nothing but the content. PRINT JOBS are the one which explains how to print. It simply connects both the PRINT TEMPLATES and PRINTER. For Instance, you want to Print only the DRINKS in DRINKS PRINTER.
DinePlan has many printer types for different needs. This document gives the complete clarity on Printers and its configuration. On the default installation of DinePlan, it will come up with the Default Printers List as shown below
Here are the Printer Types we have in DinePlan
RECEIPT PRINTER | Native printing for ESC/POS compatible thermal or dot matrix printers. If lines start with unexpected characters be sure your printer supports ESC/POS emulation and it is enabled. |
TEXT PRINTER | Just prints plain text. All formatting tags skipped |
HTML PRINTER | Select this printer type for postscript (graphical) printing. If your printer is not ESC/POS compatible (inkjet, laser) or you need to print in mixed languages you can try using this printer type. |
PORT PRINTER | This printer directly sends data to the serial port. This printer type is useful for configuring VFD customer displays or similar devices that you can send data through the serial port. In this case, you should enter PORT name to printer Share Name / Port Name |
DEMO PRINTER | This printer type sends printing content to notepad. Very useful to test printouts without wasting paper. Enter a dummy Printer Share Name as . or something similar not to leave it empty. Open Notepad application and send prints to see how it appears. |
WINDOW PRINTER | This printer type shows regular windows print dialog to let you choose a printer. |
RAW PRINTER | Use this printer type if you need to configure a printer that supports a unique command set. Useful for programming Barcode Printers or Card Printers. |
NETWORK PRINTER | Network Printer is useful for sending direct ESC/POS Command to the Printer which is connected in the NETWORK using the IP and PORT |
COPY PRINTER | It helps to copy the Entire Receipt in the Folder. (This is mainly used in Thailand to save the Copy of the Receipt) |
PORT TICKET PRINTER | ESC/POS Printer Type and it sends commands to the Serial PORT |
CUSTOM PRINTER | DinePlan has few CUSTOM PRINTER or can be created without touching the Core Modules.
URL PRINTERSend Print Output to Web Service. It will be used to Send SMS BROWSER PRINTERSend Print Output to SECOND DISPLAY and It opens the Browser and DisplaysKITCHEN DISPLAYSends the Output to DINECHEF. |
PRINTER
In this section, we will see how we can add the Receipt Printer.
STEP 1: Go to BACK OFFICE --> PRINTER --> PRINTERS
STEP 2: Click Add Printer from the left side and following Screen Appears
PRINTER NAME | Name of the Printer |
FALL BACK PRINTER | It gives the selection of Printer to choose from. Whenever the current printer fails, the output will be routed to the FALL BACK PRINTER |
PRINTER SHARE NAME/PORT NAME | For Receipt Printer, you have to select the Installed Printer For Port or Port Ticket Printer, you have to enter the SERIAL PORT NUMBER For Network Printer, you have to enter the IP and Port number |
CHARACTER SET | If your printer is ESC/POS compatible and you selected Receipt Printer and enter your printer language code here to support printing language specific characters. |
LINE COUNT | For VFD Display, you have to display one two lines to display, this will be mainly used for that. |
LINE CHARACTER COUNT | You can restrict how many characters to be displayed in the Printer. |
DEVICE TYPE | Mainly used for VFD Display, based on the Device Firmware, you have to choose the Type. |
STEP 3: Once you enter the relevant values, just click SAVE to finish.
PRINT TEMPLATES
Print Templates are helpful to configure how you want to get the output done from the Printer. It is explained very well from THIS LINK
PRINT JOBS
Print Jobs connects Printer and Print Templates. By default, it comes with the Pre-Defined JOBS and we can create as per wish.
Some of the Customer Request would be, the want to Print the Same Item in TWO DIFFERENT LOCATION. In these kind of scenarios, we need to have a two PRINT JOBS and RESPECTIVE ACTIONS as well.
Here is the PRINT JOB for PRINT BILL