Here we will discuss on how to automatically print Barcodes on a zebra printer from Oracle concurrent program.
Below are the 3 approaches that we tried and was successful with the third approach.
1) Print Labels on a Zebra printer using BI Publisher
The first approach we tried was to print barcodes using BI(formerly XML) Publisher. The report generates a PDF output and should print directly on a Zebra printer using PASTA driver. For some reason the report was not printing directly on a printer. The PDF opened in window and printed seperately/manually using Windows driver was working fine but not meeting our requirement of automatic printing. Hence we had to try second approach.
2) Print Labels using Zebra Enterprise Connector Solution
The Zebra Enterprise Connector Solution is designed to streamline the printing
process for companies using ERP systems such as Oracle BI Publisher. The Zebra
Enterprise Connector Solution helps to lower middleware costs, overhead, and
pre-printer licensing fees. It can be used with an unlimited number of
Zebra ZPL-II printers without additional per-printer licensing fees. We didnt do much research on this as were looking for an approach with minimal cost. More details on this is available at the website of Zebra
3) Print Lables on Zebra printers using Zebra Programming Language(ZPL)
The second and successful approach was to print labels using ZPL. A text output with all the zebra codes was created and which would ultimately print Barcode images on a printer. A normal regular lp command for printing text is used to print over Zebra Printers.
Below is an example of how to print Barcodes
^XA
^FO40,35^AR,10,10^FDItem :^FS
^FO40,115^AR,10,10^FDItem Description:^FS
^FO40,165^AR,10,10^FDQuantity :^FS
^FO40,245^AR,10,10^FDDiscrete Job# :^FS
^FO40,295^AR,10,10^FDSupply Sub :^FS
^FO40,375^AR,10,10^FDLocator :^FS
^FO40,455^AR,10,10^FDDestination Sub :^FS
^FO40,505^AR,10,10^FDLocator :^FS
^FO40,555^AR,10,10^FDOrder # :^FS
^FO40,635^AR,10,10^FDLine # :^FS
^FO40,715^AR,10,10^FDOrder Type :^FS
^FO40,765^AR,10,10^FDDepartment :^FS^FO305,765^AR,10,10^FDResource Group :^FS
^FO40,845^AR,10,10^FDWork Center :^FS^FO305,845^AR,10,10^FDItem Sequence :^FS
^FO40,925^AR,10,10^FDAsm Item # :^FS^FO305,925^AR,10,10^FDAsm Item Desc :^FS
^FO265,35^BY3^B3N,N,50,Y,Y^FD199395B^FS
^FO265,115^AR,10,10^FDFILTER, LUBE OIL.^FS
^FO265,165^BY3^B3N,N,55,Y,N^FD2^FS
^FO265,245^AR,10,10^FD613467^FS
^FO265,295^BY3^B3N,N,50,Y,N^FDASM^FS
^FO265,375^BY3^B3N,N,50,Y,N^FDASM.REW..^FS
^FO265,555^BY3^B3N,N,50,Y,N^FD1264076^FS
^FO265,635^BY3^B3N,N,55,Y,N^FD1^FS
^FO265,715^AR,10,10^FDMove Order^FS
^FO50,795^AR,10,10^FD6400^FS
^FO375,795^AR,10,10^FD0047^FS
^FO70,875^AR,10,10^FDASMVH12.4.5.A^FS
^FO335,875^AR,10,10^FD3^FS
^FO70,955^AR,10,10^FDL7044GSI-1021598^FS
^FO335,955^AR,10,10^FDP2212J13 L7044 GSI W/ESM & AFR^FS
^XZ
More details on how to write codes using ZPL can be found in the website of
zebraThe output of the above code is shown below.