Copy txt to lpt1 using shell

Business Central/NAV Developers Forum
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In order to print labels i’ve created a report wich first creates a txt file. After creating the file i use the shell command to copy this file to lpt1: SHELL(‘COMMAND.COM’,’/C’,STRSUBSTNO(‘copy %1 LPT1:’,strFileName)); This works fine on a PC’s installed with Windows XP or Windows 2K . But on PC’s installed with Windows 98 it doesn’t work. When i open the DOS window by hand and type the copy-command it works fine on W98 PC’s. It seems that on these machines Navision doesn’t recognize lpt1. Does anyone know how to fix this. Best regards Marcel

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Hi, we faced the same problem. What we have done is to call/execute a dos-batch file: SHELL(‘command.com /c c:\mrd12.bat’); // mrd12.bat for serial printing And in the batch we copy the created file to the serial device. This is working in XP/2000 and WIN98 environments Regards Walter

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There is a way because Lanham’s e-ship does it. I don’t want to post the code…I don’t know the legal ramifications - sorry. I do know they use a shell command.

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I tried the solution with the bat file. But even that is not working… [V]

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quote:

Originally posted by Idefix
I tried the solution with the bat file. But even that is not working…

Marcel, are you sure you called the shell like this: SHELL(‘command.com /c c:\mrd12.bat’); {the “shell-command” has to be between the ‘’} I just tried it on a Win98 machine and it is workung. If you still use your call SHELL(‘COMMAND.COM’,‘/C’,‘BatchCallHere’); you might face the same problem because you still call the command processor with an argument. Good luck.

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Marcel We are printing lots of lables. We have shared the lable printers on the network and then I print directly to the shared printer as if it is a file. I have developed a CodeUnit for Lable Printing and it works just fine. Code: PrintLable(TextLine : ARRAY [9] OF Text[80];PrinterSelect : Integer;StrNo : Code[10]) SetPrinter; FilePath := ENVIRON(‘TEMP’); StChar := 2; LableLine[1] := FORMAT(StChar) + ‘L’; LableLine[2] := ‘D11’; LableLine[12] := ‘E’; FOR I := 3 TO 11 DO LableLine[I] := DELCHR(TextLine[I - 2],’<>’); COMPRESSARRAY(LableLine); LableFileName := PrinterName[PrinterSelect]; LableFile.TEXTMODE(TRUE); LableFile.WRITEMODE(TRUE); LableFile.OPEN(LableFileName); FOR I := 1 TO 12 DO IF LableLine[I] <> ‘’ THEN LableFile.WRITE(LableLine[I]); LableFile.CLOSE;

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quote:

In order to print labels i’ve created a report wich first creates a txt file. After creating the file i use the shell command to copy this file to lpt1: SHELL(‘COMMAND.COM’,‘/C’,STRSUBSTNO(‘copy %1 LPT1:’,strFileName));

Now that you have this file can you not just use the Shell command for “PRINT” ? SHELL(‘PRINT’,‘strFileName’); When I tried this it printed the “strFileName” to the LPT1