FedEx Shipping Labels

[Sigel]

Top of page 7 has the link.

[kpirbhai]

Hi everyone,

I have been working on doing the FedEx shipping using the new Web Services from FedEx.

I've gotten a bunch of it done but am stuck at printing to the thermal label printer Zebra LP 2844 (which is what the osCommerce one says it can do). The osCommerce module is using the old way to connect to FedEx which I can't even see that they are supporting any more.

I am actually able to get the label data back and store it....but I can't seem to find a way to get the label to print to the user's printer because that printer connects via a com port. You can't just display the data and have them print it. At least I can't. The data should be sent directly to the port without being interpreted. The FedEx examples don't work for this either. I'm not the best programmer in the world and don't know anything about this side of things.

I also don't have the printer myself to test with....but my client does and he is willing to be patient while I test.

If someone knows how to get the label data to the printer I will probably be able to finally conquer this project for everyone and would be happy to donate it freely to anyone who helps out.

Thank you!

[iamcam]

Is it out of the option to output the label to an HTML page and use a print stylesheet to hide all the unnecessary bits and position the label for the printer?

We're dong something like that, though I'm not the one who ended up working iwth the client on the printer part. See if that's an option at all - I don't see it being much different than using a regular printer to print on envelopes or labels.

[kpirbhai]

I found that someone had actually gone ahead and finished the whole thing for the thermal labels and it works.

However....they are using the old API and not the Soap implementation that FedEx has now. The API creates a PNG which the client is complaining prints too slowly. (yes, they are driving me crazy).

The Soap implementation actually will return a data stream that should be routed directly to the COM port for the label printer....which I would think in theory would be just as fast as printing to the label printer from QuickBooks on the person's desktop for FedEx (which is what they want).

In the FedEx example they have the following as an example of how to print the thermal labels....but I believe that would open the COM port on the server instead of on the client and that doesn't work for what I'm trying to do.

`mode com1: BAUD=9600 PARITY=N data=8 stop=1 xon=off`;
$fp=fopen("COM1:", "w+");
if($fp)
{
     echo "Port not opened.";
} else {
     echo "Port opened.";
     fputs($fp, ( """"  the output from the soap response """"");
     fclose($fp);
}

I tried to save the data sent from FedEx to a file and then have the client print.....but it just comes out as text. I've never had to work with serial ports before and really have no clue what I'm doing. Somehow I need to trap the data that comes back and then pipe it directly to the printer on the client without having it change to text.

I am almost ready to make the client install xampp and then create a page that gets the saved data from the server and pushes it using the above code to the printer. What I may end up doing is creating a VB.Net desktop app that does just that. Haven't done any VB Desktop programming in a few years.....but at this point I'll try anything.

I've looked for a JavaScript solution as well and can't find anything. I could write an ActiveX control....but I think those only work on Win servers and this is a shared hosting account on a Unix server.


Any suggestions at this point will be ever so much appreciated.

[iamcam]

You're right - opening the COM port from your PHP script will access the one on the server, which won't work.


You have a couple of good ideas already. I like the XAMPP idea because you already have a lot of the code written - if all you need is to open access to your shared host to send the XML over for printing, you're half way there... aside from the printer issues.

Not sure if I'm much help

~Cameron

[joerod]

hello,

i've installed this mod in my cart but every time i go to ADMIN->CUSTOMERS->ORDERS->SHIP there is nothing there for fedex. i've ran the sql patches and i've rechecked that all the files are there. i am using zen cart 1.3.8a, i have a fexed api account and i do see the mod under admin > configuration. can anyone help me out?

thanks!

[delia]

If you installed the contribution in the downloads, that author has never been part of this thread.

[orento]

I found that someone had actually gone ahead and finished the whole thing for the thermal labels and it works.

However....they are using the old API and not the Soap implementation that FedEx has now. The API creates a PNG which the client is complaining prints too slowly. (yes, they are driving me crazy).

The Soap implementation actually will return a data stream that should be routed directly to the COM port for the label printer....which I would think in theory would be just as fast as printing to the label printer from QuickBooks on the person's desktop for FedEx (which is what they want).

In the FedEx example they have the following as an example of how to print the thermal labels....but I believe that would open the COM port on the server instead of on the client and that doesn't work for what I'm trying to do.

`mode com1: BAUD=9600 PARITY=N data=8 stop=1 xon=off`;
$fp=fopen("COM1:", "w+");
if($fp)
{
     echo "Port not opened.";
} else {
     echo "Port opened.";
     fputs($fp, ( """"  the output from the soap response """"");
     fclose($fp);
}

I tried to save the data sent from FedEx to a file and then have the client print.....but it just comes out as text. I've never had to work with serial ports before and really have no clue what I'm doing. Somehow I need to trap the data that comes back and then pipe it directly to the printer on the client without having it change to text.

I am almost ready to make the client install xampp and then create a page that gets the saved data from the server and pushes it using the above code to the printer. What I may end up doing is creating a VB.Net desktop app that does just that. Haven't done any VB Desktop programming in a few years.....but at this point I'll try anything.

I've looked for a JavaScript solution as well and can't find anything. I could write an ActiveX control....but I think those only work on Win servers and this is a shared hosting account on a Unix server.


Any suggestions at this point will be ever so much appreciated.

Can I have your mod? Actually I have a thermal printer(LP2844) and I can test your mod. The file you get is an EPL2 formatted label, send it direct to thermal printer will do it.