Internet Printing

[Xouqoa]

Here are a couple of scenarios, does anybody know of any hardware/software that will allow me to accomplish what I need?

Scenario 1: Remote web server needs to send files/text (probably PDF or straight HTML code) directly to printers connected at various locations. Ideally this could be done when the file/text is generated by some sort of web service type interface which connects directly to a specified IP/port and then the local client machine routes the data to the correct printer. It would be necessary to specify which printer to send the data to as well, as certain documents will be formatted differently.

Scenario 2: Remote web server creates a file (again, html or pdf) and saves it in a pre-specified directory on the web server. At the client side, the local machine checks the specified directory every x minutes for files, and if there are any there automatically prints them to the correct printer. (Different directories could be used, to separate the types of documents for each printer.) It would be nice if the files could be automatically removed after being printed, but that can probably be accomplished on the server end somehow as well.

Scenario 1 is my preferred solution, if something like that is possible. Any questions, please ask. I've been looking at various print servers today, but everybody is closed so I have to wait until Monday to start calling anybody and asking them questions about them.

[noel]

Out of my area of expertise, but I would *think* that it would be fairly straightforward to setup option 1. You'd do it with a VPN connection to the remote locations, and then just enable the web server to print to some specific network names based on the criteria you specify.

What you need my friend, is a code monkey:

[Zaelath]

The exact solution would probably depend on what kinda web server it is. However, you will find option 2 is faster as "print jobs" tend to bloat like hell as they are sent as RAW/postscript... just print some local stuff to see what I mean, I've seen colour prints bloat by 100x easily.

If you've got unlimited/big bandwidth, I guess that doesn't matter....

[Xouqoa]

Out of my area of expertise, but I would *think* that it would be fairly straightforward to setup option 1. You'd do it with a VPN connection to the remote locations, and then just enable the web server to print to some specific network names based on the criteria you specify.

What you need my friend, is a code monkey:

I don't know if doing it through a VPN could be done automatically. For example, a file will be generated/printed whenever certain data is saved to the database. The files will be generated on the fly, and I don't know if setting up a remote printer through a VPN will allow me to specify a specific printer.

It is a windows 2003 server, Zaelath - if that makes any difference.

[Zaelath]

I'm going to go ahead and insist that "web server" means the OS, server (apache/IIS), and language (asp, php, etc) combo

If it's IIS and php, there's some decent ideas on this thread: http://au.php.net/manual/en/ref.printer.php

Again, the "various locations" part worries me unless everyone is on about 10mbit symmetrical links, or they're really small print jobs...

[Xouqoa]

I'm going to go ahead and insist that "web server" means the OS, server (apache/IIS), and language (asp, php, etc) combo

If it's IIS and php, there's some decent ideas on this thread: http://au.php.net/manual/en/ref.printer.php

Again, the "various locations" part worries me unless everyone is on about 10mbit symmetrical links, or they're really small print jobs...

IIS and ColdFusion. There should be some Java level objects similar to what you linked for PHP, so I'll try having a look around for that.

The various locations will all be connected through the internet - not over a LAN.

[Xouqoa]

I think I actually found a solution using some software I had looked at in the past, but didn't find a use for at the time.

http://www.visualcron.com